One of the things that made Tony Kaye’s American History X both engrossing and unnerving as a film was the way he pulled viewers into the story, forcing us to look closely at Edward Norton’s neo-nazi skinhead character Derek Vinyard and his family. The film seemed designed to bring us uncomfortably close to what was happening, making it hard to watch at times and also just as difficult to look away.


Whether Detachment proves to be as jarring and emotional as American History X remains to be seen, but the story sounds decidedly different, as racism and misplaced rage don’t appear to be major themes in the film. Frustration does seem to be a common thread, based in the trailer, which follows the previously released international trailer for the film.

Detachment stars Adrien Brody as Henry Barthes, a substitute teacher who tries to avoid forming bonds with his students by keeping his job assignments short-term. That may change when he takes a job at a school where the students are apathetic and the faculty is burned out. While the story doesn’t sound entirely unfamiliar, the trailer suggests that this may be a slightly more personal look at the story of a teacher connecting with his students, while dealing with his own issues. Plus, the cast is top notch, including Marcia Gay Harden, Christina Hendricks, William Petersen, Bryan Cranston, Blythe Danner and Lucy Liu, among others.

Here’s the new trailer, courtesy of iTunes.



Kaye certainly doesn’t shy away from close-ups. That comes through especially toward the end of the trailer during the montage of faces revealing what appears to be a shared sense of frustration among some of the characters.

Detachment premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival last spring and made its way through a number of other festivals after that. The film releases in theaters on March 16th, however it will be available on iTunes on February 24th.