Interesting but too many plots bring this film down. We have a teacher who is pressured to pass a miserable child so that they can get him out of the school despite the fact that the brat assaulted the teacher. The teacher (Aidan Quinn) has a wife who has left him, apparently suffering from depression and has gone to her sister in Denver. There are 2 young polite boys from the marriage who eventually find an old lady dead in her apartment. They deliver the paper to her and never bother to report that the woman, who lost her son in Korea, has died. The boys get caught up with that miserable student, who has bigoted parents.

If this isn't enough, we have America Fererra, who has been abandoned by her mother when it is determined that she is pregnant. She goes to live with 2 older gentlemen who have kept to themselves following the deaths of their parents. They are recommended by the teacher in the next room who has romantic visions on Quinn. The school secretary also has an eye on this man.

Yes, the movie is interesting but the themes abound. Each character could have developed into a story by itself. Was the teacher motivating the student? The pressure that teachers are faced with to pass students according to their supervisors is another theme. The depression of the mother. The life of the old woman (Marion Seldes) and the 2 older gentlemen who find they can contribute to life. I could go on and on.