I’m giving this movie my highest rating, and I’ll tell you why:
Partly, I feel the need to compensate for the unjustly low reviews it’s gotten elsewhere, but mostly because it’s funny. It’s really funny. And most importantly it’s smart funny- which is shocking when you consider that the flimsy plot looked like it couldn’t possibly be a vehicle for intelligent humor.
Sometimes you see a movie trailer and you just know that a film is going to be awful. That’s how I felt when I was forced to sit through the Bad Teacher trailer three times over the past couple of weeks.
In the trailer, the theme looked weak, and the premise wasn’t really explained. There was some good dialogue and delivery- but these days you have to assume that they’re just showing you the best (and perhaps the only) good moments in the entire film.
Early this week, I took a look at the reviews: Rotten Tomatoes had Bad Teacher rated well below 50%. That was all the evidence I needed to skip it entirely, or possibly catch it on cable somewhere down the line.
Then something odd happened: NPR gave it a glowing review. That seemed backwards to me. NPR generally saves its glowing reviews for artsy independent films that my girlfriend wants to make me see. NPR doesn’t like goofball comedies- particularly not ones as bad as Bad Teacher promised to be.
So, I decided to go have a look for myself, and I’m glad I did.
I can understand why other reviewers panned the film: the plot is thin, the character development seems forced, and almost every scene of the film is derivative of other comedies. One scene even sank so low as to include bathroom humor, which is usually a deal-breaker for me.
So, how can a film that sounds so shallow and awful be getting such a good review here?
Because it’s funny. I can’t stress that enough. This is a really funny movie.
The entire (amazing) cast displays perfect comic timing and delivery throughout. They clearly had fun making this movie, and their performances made the already witty dialogue truly shine.
Cameron Diaz does a fine job in the lead- surprisingly at her very best when she’s being hilariously cruel- a side of her which we haven’t seen very often before, but which the this movie milks (successfully) as it’s primary gag.
A special nod has to be given to Phyllis Smith, who you probably already know as “Phyllis from The Office”. Now, I’ve always been a fan of The Office, and Phyllis has given me a few laughs… but like most of the actors on that show, her performance is so understated and genuine that it’s easy to forget that character isn’t her real personality.
When her new character “Lynn Davies” showed up on screen in Bad Teacher, I was expected an excellent but predictable rehashing of her character from The Office- but I was wrong. Phyllis Smith delivered a masterful performance. She was just as understated as her Office character, but with a subtle but undeniable new essence. Though Lynn Davies’ defining attribute is her meekness, somehow she steals the show whenever she’s on screen.
Jason Segel, playing gym teacher “Russell Gettis” is another perfect example of how the acting in this movie elevated the film from mediocrity to something special. The script did a very good job of making Russell charming, witty and likable, but Segel’s performance gives the character a depth and vulnerability that exist independent of the dialog.
Justin Timberlake was clearly having fun playing the ridiculous “Scott Delacorte”. His performance here had the same flavor that has made him a beloved feature on Saturday Night Live in recent years. He clearly delights in playing characters that are the antithesis of his natural charm, charisma, and sex appeal. There is an unspoken self-deprecation in everything Timberlake does in this film, stemming from the fact that he is a sex icon having been given a role that most casting directors would have handed to any of the hundreds of popular actors that have been typecasts as nerds.
If there is a weak point in the cast of characters, it would have to be “Amy Squirrel”, the film’s antagonist. Amy is played by Lucy Punch, who, like everyone else in the film, does a fantastic job. My complaint here isn’t the acting- it’s the character herself. Amy starts off with lots of solid dialogue, and for the first half of the film elicits her fair share of the laughs. Somewhere in the middle of the film, the writers (Gene Stupnitsky and Lee Eisenberg) stopped feeding her good lines, and turned her into an over-the-top caricature, whose primary purpose was to move the plot along. This is my only real complaint about the movie.
There were lots of structural problems with the film: the character development, the character motivations, the narrative flow- and most of the critics out there can easily point to the flaws to justify the poor ratings they’ve given. But I assert that Bad Teacher cannot be judge by the standard criteria.
Like a house built on a poor foundation, you expect this movie to topple over at any moment… but that collapse never comes. The film would easily be exposed as mindless fluff if ever the humor were to run out. But the humor doesn’t run out. The laugh lines are plentiful and evenly distributed throughout the film. I even found the bathroom humor funny- and I never find bathroom humor funny.
This movie is never going to be a classic- it wasn’t supposed to be. But it is very fun, and funny enough that I look forward to rewatching it in the future. It’s not fantastic, but it is very good, and deserves far better ratings than the ones it’s been getting so far. I highly recommend it to anyone who needs a good laugh.
