Freedom Writers

So Hilary Swank is a High School English teacher and most of her students in Class Room 203 are 'at-risk' students having close links to gang members and violence. The movie has its share of cliches. Still it stands out pretty good. One reason being, its a real story. In fact the movie end credits show the photo of the actual Erin Gruwell (played by Swank in the movie) and her batch of students. The movie itself is based on "The Freedom Writers Diary" by teacher Erin Gruwell.
The students belong to different races who of course keeps fighting with each other and their inner demons and the teacher tries to bring about a change. The way the sequences and narration are handled is pretty interesting and the direction is top notch. The teacher uses the holocaust and 'The Diary of Anne Frank' to teach the students tolerance and to send across the message. The students are asked to write diaries with their own stories and experiences. Good old internet tells me that these diaries are pretty famous and has been inspirational for a lot of students.
The movie had its TV premiere in HBO today. Should be able to catch it this week in the same channel :)