Think of any inspirational movie which features a new teacher taking on a class of students who have been given up on and the sort of gritty drama such as "Dangerous Minds" will probably spring to mind. One which probably won't is "The Ron Clark Story" starring Matthew Perry, or "The Triumph" as it is also known, because whilst it's another one of those inspiration high school tales about a group of kids whose lives are turned around it's not a movie which is necessarily gritty. It's much lighter aimed at a different audience to those grittier movies and as such feels not so much different but fresh.

Four years after taking up a temporary teaching post in his home town Ron Clark (Matthew Perry - Three to Tango) decides it's time to take a risk and heads off to Harlem in search of work teaching in an inner school. Having been forced to work part time at a theme restaurant whilst finding a job he finally gets an opportunity to teach a class of no hopers and rebels at the Inner Harlem Elementary School. At first Ron struggles to get through to the rebellious kids, but his unorthodox approach slowly works but causes issues with both the schools Principal and the parents of his class. But none of it will matter unless he can get his class to pass their exams.

Made for TV and inspired by a true story "The Ron Clark Story" is a movie which tries to find a balance between the drama of the situation with a lighter touch, even delivering a slightly humorous under tone to the unravelling story. In many ways it's akin to "Patch Adams" revolving around Clark's humorous and often unorthodox approach to teaching. Annoyingly though it doesn't quite work as it should, yes it's entertaining, slightly humorous and even emotional when it needs to be but doesn't have that big lasting impact because it doesn't dwell on the situation outside of the classroom, despite acknowledging the hard lives that the children live. In many ways it tries to be a family friendly version of "Dangerous Minds" with a younger class of rebellious kids but because of this there is part of it, that sense of doom and dark drama which is sadly not developed.

But as you would expect being another one of those true story - inspirational school movies it does follow a pretty rigid formula from Clark's struggle to get through to the kids, the disapproval of the parents and the schools principal right through to an emotional ending, oh and a little heavily sign posted yet sweet romance as well because Ron is a nice guy and deserves it. It doesn't add anything new to the equation other than several humorous scenes such as when to get his class to pay attention he agrees to drink a chocolate milk every 15 seconds. The humour helps with plenty of funny moments, some overly manufactured such as the presidential rap but some nice natural moments which achieve the smile they set out to do.

What is very good though is the casting of Matthew Perry as Ron Clark because despite cast for being both likable and amusing is for once not Perry playing the same character again, that of Chandler from "Friends". It's actually a very enjoyable, seriously impressive performance and more importantly believable such as when Clark having been diagnosed with pneumonia still carries on teaching because he cares, Perry delivers the emotion of it perfectly. You do honestly forget that you are watching Matthew Perry rather than an honest good guy who has a passion for teaching children. Although saying that there are some forced comedy moments which feel far too contrived despite Perry making them entertaining, one in particular is the scene where he tries to learn double dutch skipping causing plenty of tripping up.

Aside from Matthew Perry there is Ernie Hudson as the initially disapproving school Principal Mr. Turner and Melissa De Sousa is lovely but underused as Ron's friend and obvious love interest Marissa Vega. But what is more important is for once we have children playing children rather than much older actors trying to pass as youngsters and it works brilliantly. Hannah Hodson is great as lead rebel Shameika and Brandon Smith delivers just enough mean and moody as Tayshawn to create a character which is recognizable but not over the top considering the age he is playing.

What this all boils down to is that "The Ron Clark Story" is a very enjoyable take on the inspirational school tale. It may follow a formulaic storyline with all the expected elements and emotional highs but with the slightly lighter emphasis and the casting of Matthew Perry to lead makes it very entertaining. It works but sadly it does lack that gritty element of how rough life is for these kids out of school and as such is a bit too fairytale like rather than truly honest.