Trama

A substitute teacher who drifts from classroom to classroom finds a connection to the students and teachers during his latest assignment.

In Director Tony Kaye's Detachment, Academy Award® winner Adrien Brody stars as Henry Barthes, an educator with a true talent to connect with his students. Yet Henry has chosen to bury his gift. By spending his days as a substitute teacher, he conveniently avoids any emotional connections by never staying anywhere long enough to form an attachment to either students or colleagues. When a new assignment places him at a public school where a frustrated, burned-out administration has created an apathetic student body, Henry quickly becomes a role model as a teacher who actually cares about the well-being of these students. In finding an emotional connection to the students but also fellow teachers and a runaway teen, he finds that he's not alone in a life and death struggle to find beauty in a seemingly vicious and loveless world.—Tribeca Film

Henry Barthes is a high-school substitute teacher emotionally detached from everyone but his grandfather. When he was a seven year-old boy, he saw his mother committing and he is a traumatized and sad man. Henry is assigned to work for one-month in a decadent public school and along this period, he meets the teenage prostitute Erica on the streets and he brings her to his apartment to take care of her. In his class, he feels affection for the troubled student Meredith and tries to help her. These adolescents change his emotions toward people.—Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Roaming from school to school, substitute teacher, Henry Barthes, never stays long enough to form any semblance of sentient attachment--the perfect profession for one who is seeking to hide out in the open. However, one day, after arriving at his next assignment, Henry feels that three women of this particular school--Meredith in his first period; the fellow teacher, Ms Madison, and a streetwalker named Erica--have somehow awakened a secret world of well-hidden emotion within him. And, just like Henry, these women find themselves in a constant search for meaning in a harsh, faceless world.—Nick Riganas

Detachment is a chronicle of three weeks in the lives of several high school teachers, administrators and students through the eyes of a substitute teacher named Henry Barthes. Henry roams from school to school, imparting modes of knowledge, but never staying long enough to form any semblance of sentient attachment. A perfect profession for one seeking to hide out in the open. One day Henry arrives at his next assignment. Upon his entry into this particular school, a secret world of emotion is awakened within him by three women. A girl named Meredith in his first period, a fellow teacher, Ms. Madison, and a street hooker named Erica, to whom Henry has personally granted brief shelter from the streets. Each one of these women, like Henry, are in a life and death struggle to find beauty in a seemingly vicious and loveless world.

Substitute teacher Henry Barthes is called in for a one-month assignment, teaching English classes at a high school with many students performing at a low grade level.

On his first day, he assesses his students' writing skills with an essay regarding how they believe they will be remembered after they die. During this class, he observes many acts of hostility and antagonism, including a student yelling at him and threatening him physically, as well as two students verbally harassing pupil Meredith, with whom he becomes acquainted after class. Later that day, he witnesses more aggression, when the mother of a student who has been expelled for harassing teacher Sarah Madison confronts her.

After school, Henry is called in to the care facility to see his grandfather who is suffering from dementia, as he has locked himself in the bathroom and won't come out. On his way out, after his visit, Henry expresses his frustrations with a staff member, as he believes his grandfather isn't being taken care of properly.

On the bus ride home, Henry sees young sex worker, Erica, get hit by a man who refuses to pay her. Erica attempts to convince Henry to have sex with her, which he refuses.

The next day, Henry reads aloud to the class through the essays from earlier. After reading an anonymous essay (which is assumed to be Meredith's), he becomes aware of her struggles with suicidal ideation.

After visiting his grandfather, Henry again runs into Erica, who he invites up to his apartment. There, he feeds her, cleans the cuts and scrapes on her legs, and allows her to stay for the night. Over the next few nights, she is allowed to stay, though he informs her that she won't be able to stay forever.

At school, the staff have a memorial service for a teacher who has passed away, though none of them liked him, nor do they know how he died.

Later, a speaker gives a talk to the faculty, discussing how the low test scores are bringing down real-estate prices, outraging the exhausted teachers. It is revealed there that Principal Carol Dearden is being fired soon. After the talk, Sarah asks Henry back to her house for dinner. When Henry returns home late, Erica is still awake, waiting for him. She is upset that he went out without telling her, to which he informs her that she can't expect him to tell her such things. However, Henry believes that Erica is showing responsibility, since she went grocery shopping and prepared dinner, which he is pleased with.

Back at school, the counsellor Dr. Parker talks to a student, Missy, about her low grades and lack of ambition, to which she seems to lack any care about. Dr. Parker tries to tell Missy about the importance of education later in life, but she loses her composure as she expresses her frustrations over her own life, which has supposedly not gone how she wished.

Henry is later called into the care facility, where Erica has been waiting for him, because his grandfather has become gravely ill. Henry's grandfather is scared, as he believes he is responsible for the disquiet in Henry's life, and he feels that he cannot leave him. Henry tells his grandfather that he's done nothing wrong and he can let himself go if he wants to. After their visit, Henry and Erica go to the park, where Erica asks about Henry's mother. He details her suicide, the result of an overdose. He also implies that his grandfather had sexually abused his mother, but says that he never felt unsafe around either of them.

The next day at school, Meredith shows Henry an artwork that she made for him. After she mentions that Henry seems like he needs someone to talk to, Henry becomes concerned, as he believes she is referring to herself. When Meredith opens up about her struggles and becomes visibly upset, Henry tries to comfort her. She hugs him, now very upset, asking Henry to console her. Sarah walks in on them (causing Meredith to run away) and expresses her concern that Henry was acting inappropriately towards Meredith. Henry insists that he was just comforting her. However, becoming so horrified by even the mention of committing such acts himself, Henry panics and is overcome by memories of his mother and grandfather.

Later that day, Henry is informed that his grandfather has died. Feeling on-edge after all that's happened, Henry informs Erica he can no longer take care of her, and has social services take her to a foster home. She becomes very distraught, begging him to let her stay, but he reluctantly maintains his stance.

The next day at school, Meredith has set up a cupcake stall. Henry goes to talk to her about the day before, still trying to console her, but she seems reluctant to talk to him. She then eats one of her cupcakes, which she laced with poison, and dies by suicide.

Later, he decides to go visit Erica in the foster care facility. She euphorically embraces him.

On his last day of teaching, Henry reads to the class The Fall of the House of Usher by Edgar Allan Poe.