Movie Review: Bad Teacher

Bad Teacher did two things for me that were unexpected, very unexpected: it kept me watching and it kept my interest. As hard as I tried to not like this movie, between a very clever script and a not too bad cast and maybe even a little direction that we can make note of, Bad Teacher redeems itself from the many missteps that could have been avoided. However, when you consider the screen writers for Bad Teacher gave us the very funny Year One and many hilarious episodes of the hit television show The Office, you do have to wonder, to some degree, what might have been.

Bad Teacher introduces us to middle school teacher Elizabeth Halsey (Cameron Diaz), who shows no interest, nor aptitude for being a teacher. Content to skate along, the movie opens with her retiring from the profession as she is about to marry an uber rich fellow, but that plan gets sidetracked and we find her back in school come the fall semester and that is where the hijinks begin. While clichéd situations in which she is hung over and uninterested in her students could have been played to better effect, Bad Teacher still works enough to make us invest in the storyline and, ultimately, that’s how I ended up playing along.

Justin Timberlake plays the nerdy, permanent substitute Scott Delacourte, who just happens to come from family of means, which, of course, leads him to become the object of Ms. Halsey’s affection. Although the unrequited love of gym teacher Russell Gettis (Jason Segel) provides some just-under-the-surface tension and hilarity, it is the comedic undertones of the rest of the supporting cast that truly make Bad Teacher worthy of your disposable income. The ensemble performance is fun and leaves us entertained, as so few R-rated comedies do these days.

The rating for this movie is all about the language, but it is that same language that oddly makes this movie work. Imagine a student/teacher exchange that almost crosses the line of vulgarity and you have a good grasp of what Bad Teacher accomplishes at a very entertaining level. This is not as funny and clever as Year One, but the script is not bad, and the performances of a very funny cast and a talented director in Jake Kasdan give this movie a helping hand.

I won’t reveal any spoilers here and I am not going to bash the “what could have beens” in this movie because I did end up liking it and I don’t normally like comedies. It’s not because I don’t have a sense of humor, but rather that I usually feel insulted and disappointed by most comedic fare. Yes, I was waiting for that to happen during Bad Teacher, but something strange happened along the way – it didn’t. That, along with the film making me forget that I was waiting to be disappointed earned it a higher rating than it may actually deserve.

Bad Teacher will not end up in the comedy Hall of Fame, by any measure. It may not even last three weeks at the box office, but it was funny, it did entertain and it didn’t end up sucking, and after what we get on the big screen most of the time these days I would have to say that is a victory for a movie I went in to expecting not to like. Give Bad Teacher a try and you will not be disappointed, but you also won’t remember it six months from now.

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