I caught this last night. Hilary Swank as an idealist teacher in gang-infested Long beach, California. The story has been done to death, most recently in 1995's DANGEROUS MINDS. Still, I kind of enjoyed it. Swank was believable (she always is) and Patrick Dempsey was given just enough dialogue so that you'd never know he can't act.
Worth seeing.
I stayed the heck away from that film when it came out because as you said, the story had been done before. No offense against Swank, I dig her work, but I'm getting tired of this inner city feel good stories like these. Just not my genre I guess
