Lately the films I’ve been reviewing have been of a rather serious/dramatic nature, so this week I thought I’d switch it up with a good ol’ fashioned 90’s teen movie. A slightly (or very) ridiculous plotline is the basis for this movie, but I should point out that the high school characters involved are very serious about the whole thing. Okay, let’s get started!
Katie Holmes is Leigh Ann Watson, a bright high school senior with good grades who just wants to escape her small town and not end up a waitress like her mom. The poor girl has a nice modest home with her mother, clothes to wear, and food on the table. Life is clearly rough for her. Her best friend Jo Lynn (Marisa Coughlan) is also desperate to leave their small town, but only because she wants to run off to Hollywood and make it as an actress, because every movie in this era needed a character like that. Jo Lynn is the wild and crazy one always nagging at Leigh Ann to be more free and take crazy chances and such. She is also apparently in love with a fellow classmate named Luke (Barry Watson) who doesn’t seem to realize she’s alive. The character of Luke is perhaps the single least believable thing about this film—if there is a very tall handsome late-twenties-looking guy in your high school senior class, you should assume there must be something seriously wrong there. High school boys DO NOT look like this.
Leigh Ann’s only real problem in life is that her history teacher, Mrs. Tingle (Helen Mirren), seems to hate her and is determined to withhold an ‘A’ for a project, which will interfere with Leigh Ann getting the scholarship for college that she is after and becoming class valedictorian (because I guess there is no other way a super smart girl could get into college). When Luke finds Jo Lynn and Leigh Ann hanging out at the school after hours and hands them the answers to the history final, the three end up getting caught by Mrs. Tingle herself who pins the theft of the test on Leigh Ann and assures her that her graduation is now in jeopardy.
The two girls panic, sure that Mrs. Tingle won’t listen to reason, or believe that Luke was the
one who stole the test answers, even though he’s willing to take responsibility for what he has done. Eventually they decide to go to Mrs. Tingle’s house and try asking her nicely to not ruin their high school careers. Tingle is in no mood to hear their excuses though and somehow Luke comes to the conclusion that they have no choice but to threaten Mrs. Tingle with a homemade crossbow and tie her up in her bed while they figure out how to keep her out of school for the next week so they can graduate. Brilliant solution. The future of America right there.
Jo Lynn puts her mediocre acting talent to use and pretends to be Mrs. Tingle on the phone with the school and calls out sick. Leigh Ann and Luke go off to school so things don’t look amiss and leave Jo Lynn to watch their hostage, who uses this time to start turning the young girl against her accomplices. The other two take turns watching Mrs. Tingle as well and she keeps planting doubts with each of them about the others, until Jo Lynn is fed up with things and goes home. Leigh Ann and Luke remain and finally give in to the longing, affectionate 18-year-old looks they’ve been giving each other. Jo Lynn of course finds out, as she suspected all along, and while she and Leigh Ann have it out over the handsome young robber of history test answers, Mrs. Tingle escapes and ties Luke up instead. She knows Leigh Ann will be back to the house to check on her and prepares a trap/arms the crossbow that’s still laying around.
In the final showdown Leigh Ann ends up running for her life through the house while Tingle chases after her with the crossbow. At the last minute, another disgruntled student charges through Mrs. Tingle’s front door and ends up taking the crossbow arrow meant for Leigh Ann. Though the girl ended up being stunned but unharmed, Mrs. Tingle believes her to be dead. The school principle shows up just in time to hear Mrs. Tingle confess that she had killed the student, trying instead to kill Leigh Ann.
And apparently that’s it. Really. Somehow the police never ask any questions, including why Tingle had been tied up in her house for several days or why the kids had a crossbow to begin with. Graduation is suddenly happening without a hitch, Leigh Ann is valedictorian like she always wanted, and her muddled friendship with Jo Lynn has been healed. All is well.
This film was meant to be somewhat of a thriller but I really only felt a few moments of thrill, those being when Helen Mirren is FIRING A CROSSBOW at some suck-up young student who’s furious because she got her first ‘B’. It wasn’t a bad film, but it isn’t a masterpiece by any means. Simply put, just another teen movie about how 18-year-olds are superior wise beings who always know better than adults. Until next time.
Teaching Mrs. Tingle, Rated PG-13, 1999
Starring Helen Mirren, Katie Holmes, Jeffrey Tambor
Directed by Kevin Williamson
Written by Kevin Williamson
-Jess D (guest film reviewer)
