Movie Review: 'Bad Teacher'
Jonathan Hutchings
Seen on: June 22, 2011
The players: Director: Jake Kasdan, Writers: Gene Stupnitsky, Lee Eisenberg, Cast: Cameron Diaz, Jason Segel, Justin Timberlake
Facts of interest: Bradley Cooper was considered for a role in the film.
The plot: Elizabeth Halsey is a boisterous, foul-mouthed junior high school teacher, who, upon getting dumped by her rich fiancé, begins to court another wealthy man, substitute Scott Delacorte. This ignites a feud with a fellow teacher.
Our thoughts: Full confession alert: I root for Jake Kasdan. Ever since I saw his criminally underrated film "The TV Set," I've taken an interest in his career trajectory. "Orange County" and "Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story," while certainly not cinematic milestones, were nonetheless solid if not unspectacular, so I always thought he had some directorial chops.
When it was announced that he was setting up a summer Cameron Diaz vehicle over at Columbia, I was equally excited and nervous. With its halfway decent premise, this could have been his opportunity to really break out and become one of the leading comedic directors in the industry. Then, "Bad Teacher" was made.
The "plot" revolves around Elizabeth Halsey (Diaz), a gold-digging slacker who's forced to return to the teaching job she just left after her rich fiancé catches on to her ulterior motives and dumps her. Soon after, she sets her sights on well-off new teacher, Scott (Timberlake), and she decides she's going to need a boob job if she’s going to have any chance of snaring him (naturally).
When Elizabeth's sweet-natured colleague (Phyllis Smith) informs her that there's a cash bonus for the highest test scores, she decides it's time to start taking her job more seriously—until she discovers a way to con a gullible test official (Thomas Lennon) into giving her the papers instead. Meanwhile, she has to dodge the advances of dopey gym teacher Russell (Jason Segel), keep the oblivious principal (John Michael Higgins) on her good side and stay out of the way of the perky, overachieving rival teach Amy Squirrel (Lucy Punch), who's becoming increasingly obsessed with taking her down.
The film's main problem is that it just isn't very funny—there are vaguely amused smiles where there should be belly laughs. Elizabeth isn't convincing as a fleshed out, fully rounded character (surely part of the blame has to fall on Diaz's limited comedic range). Timberlake tries hard here (too hard, actually), but his character is both underwritten and underwhelming—which is a shame, because there's strong support from Smith and particularly Punch, who is a gifted physical comedienne. She truly outshines everyone else, and forget about stealing the film, she basically walks away with it.
Then there's the hackneyed, paint-by-numbers script. Trite as it may be, it really does strive to become bigger than the sum of its parts—it just doesn't. The screenwriters opt for a lazy, poorly structured plot that feels more like a series of not-very-funny sketches and is extremely inconsistent. From the start, it's obvious where the narrative's rom-com element is heading, so that tension is virtually removed entirely.
Most of the comedy is hung on Elizabeth's bad-girl antics, which is sometimes amusing but never develops any sense of continuity—perhaps because it's hard to believe Diaz is actually a bad girl. She undercuts the nastiness with sass, radiating intelligent sarcasm rather than cruelty or rebellion. Honestly, would someone this smart be so focused on such a superficial quest?
By the same token, Kasdan struggles to find the right tone and the film can't decide whether it wants to be a full-on dark-edged comedy or a warm-hearted rom com. Hitchcock himself couldn't pull off a sweet-natured film about selfish, manipulative people who are impossible to like or care about.
The old adage that "comedy is all in the timing" couldn't be more applicable here. Diaz's dialogue may have looked great on paper, but because of Kasdan's direction and questionable editing decisions, these lines are surrounded by too much space. A master comedian like Peter Sellers or Gene Wilder could have made the most of it, but in Diaz's case, she was hung out to dry.
Hopefully Kasdan has the wherewithal to avoid becoming just another director who churns out mediocre studio comedies for the paycheck. As for "Bad Teacher," it doesn't simply serve Hollywood formula, it pretends to be above it. Unfortunately for audiences, it's not.
Freaky quote: "Fuck my ass." - Cameron Diaz
The final word: "Bad Teacher" suffers from meddling in the middle ground: it doesn't want to be too raunchy, yet it isn't outrageous enough to be memorable; it doesn't want to be too sentimental, yet it isn't endearing enough to earn any of the emotional moments it attempts to hit. Couple that with uneven performances, bland direction and a shoddy script, and you have a recipe for a misfire.
On the web: http://www.areyouabadteacher.com/
Article by Jonathan Hutchings
Reader Comments (11)
Great write up. I agreed with every one of your points whih ler me tell you rarly happens. Your point about kasdan's direction and decisions is very interesting . I wonder if someone else did it like jude apatow, maybe it would have been better. What do u think?
Thanks for writing, Unemployed. To answer your question, maybe Apatow could have injected some more character development into the film, but there isn't a whole lot you can do with a terrible script. Apatow embraces improvisation almost to a fault, so maybe that could have elevated the material a bit, but he'd still have the trite story arcs and the completely disingenuous third act resolution to deal with. You know what they say about polishing a turd...
Jonny, Shouldn't you respond to Paul now?
Cameron Diaz looks like a blowfish with bad crow's feet in this movie. She's not even hot anymore and she tried hard to be in this movie. (I just got back from seeing it, so it's fresh on my mind)
I don't know, I had a good time with "Bad Teacher". I agree with you that the character that JT played was underdeveloped but I laughed a lot. This was the best thing I've seen Cameron in since Charlie's Angels. She is beautiful and a terrific actress. It's just she's woman and there isn't a lot of good roles for women in Hollywood. But she has class and always does her best and keeps me entertained all the time!! She's not bad to look at neither!!! lol
Isn't bad to look at? She looks like an old drag queen that got punched in the nose.
Guys, last time I checked this is a MOVIE blog, not Fashion Police. Who cares who ugly Cameron Diaz is? Let's talk about THE MOVIE!!!!!
Jonathan, I think you raised a great point about how she looks smarter than the character she plays. I felt the same way. It was like you couldn't believe that she was that shallow and uncaring about everything. Maybe that was the performance and or maybe the filmmakers didn't do QUITE enough to put her over the top as a bad person. It just felt light and comedic, you know? Anyway, great review and keep up the good work!
Sorry Fellini, I didn't realize that you were the comments moderator for the site. Why don't u get over yourself? People can say whatever they want. If you don't like it..... dont read it!!!!
I love Lucy Punch! I'm glad you mentioned how good she is in Bad Teacher. I've loved her for a long time, and I'm glad Hollywood is finally taking notice. She is going to be a big, big star! You heard it here first
Jonny, while I have had the honor of reading many of your reviews in the past, I feel like your movie-reviewing keeps getting better and better! You are truly the best writer I know.
I'm not at all biased.
God dammit I wasted money on this movie. Poorly done on each level. And a waste of time to.