Ex-Marine, divorcee and English teacher LouAnne (Michelle Pfeiffer) arrives at a tough inner city school determined to make a difference to the lives of her new special needs students. But first she has to win their trust. Along the way she has to overcome opposition to her unorthodox methods from above.  This "To Ma'am with Love" is much more an escapist popcorn movie than the inner-city document its marketing suggested. Michelle Pfeiffer plays real-life former Marine Louanne Johnson, a high school English teacher who meets resistance from kids and administration alike at a tough urban school in Northern California. Pfeiffer is good and her character's overall development even survives various post-production story cuts. (A romance with Andy Garcia's character was completely eliminated before release; Garcia is nowhere in sight.) The actors who play Johnson's students are also fine and the whole film becomes the latest in a long tradition of sentimental movies about teachers who change the lives of kids. --Tom Keogh