Teaching Mrs. Tingle by John Sylva Rating: B-
http://hometown.aol.com/DeWyNGaLe/MoviePED.html
Teaching Mrs. Tingle, the directorial debut of Scream scribe Kevin Williamson, is his final attempt in his own genre of teen movies, as he will be "leaving" the genre, excluding his role of producer and co-writer of this fall's Scream 3, and move onto the romantic comedy genre next, where he hopes to do the same for that genre, as he did for the entire teen/horror genre, which would be- revive it with a new feel and edge. Kevin, you did great while you were in teen genre, as your biggest hits, Scream and TV's Dawson's Creek, both carry a cult following, and your name is one of the few movie writers/directors that any teen could recognize.
Like Williamson's cult phenomenon Scream, Teaching Mrs. Tingle focuses on a central group of diverse, and offbeat characters, who join forces once realizing the trouble that could evolve from the situations that are put forth at them. Straight A student, potential valedictorian recipient Leigh Ann Watson (Katie Holmes) wraps up her history project, the grade that will be the control in receiving a scholarship, and the Valedictorian honor- A diary covering the Salem Witch, who was burned at the stake- and she, along with waitress mother Faye (Lesley Ann Warren), know she has an A project on her hands. The only thing standing her Leigh Ann's way of becoming the most successful student in her class at Gransboro High- the wickedly evil Mrs. Eve Tingle (Helen Mirren). Of course, Mrs. Tingle shares not the same gratitude and excitement as the ambitious Leigh Ann, but instead repulsion, jealousy.
The above is our introduction into this fun, somewhat clever, sometimes thrilling film, which slows down for not a second, which isn't necessarily a good thing, as just as the decisions and choices the lead characters make aren't so great, Williamson doesn't make the best decisions either, creating a somewhat mediocre film. What results from the setup, that does everything it should- make you hate this evil witch- Teaching Mrs. Tingle transfers to the dark, wicked type humor used in this summer's Drop Dead Gorgeous, or last spring's Jawbreaker- Which by the way, holds no such quality as this film.
Jo Lynn (Marisa Couglan), an aspiring actress, who is loyal best friend to Leigh Ann, is willing to take any risks to get Leigh Ann where she wants to go in life- to become a writer. When the two best buds and junkie student Luke Churner (Barry Watson) get caught in a scandalous situation in the school's gymnasium, which could potentially ruin the three's entire futures, by Mrs. Tingle, the three are desperate to redeem their futures from Tingle, at her home, where they offer their apologizes. Of course, Tingle rejects any such apology, and the night changes from trying to make up for wrong doings, into an extreme wrong doing- Holding Tingle captive in her own home, tied to her bed, gagged, only fed sparingly.
For the rest of the film, Teaching Mrs. Tingle delivers its share of big laughs, suspenseful moments, and strong performances. The latter mainly stands for the devilishly clever performance by Helen Mirren, who conducts herself as if she were Queen Elizabeth, strutting around school passing out failing grades, and spewing downright nasty dialogue, creating an unlikable, yet fun(ny) antagonist.
Katie Holmes' great talent for acting is fighting for a bigger, more mature character, but Holmes continues to go into teen roles like this one, and in 1998's Disturbing Behavior, in which she will be limited to in her career, unless she gets out of the role as Joey Potter on T.V.'s Dawson's Creek. Holmes adds a needed edge on the hit T.V. show, but more serious, mature roles are out there, which Holmes could grab in an instant. Holmes shined in last spring's Go, which was her first attempt outside of the teen genre, but she falls back into it here. Although Holmes portrays her character with a touch of sympathy and reality, her acting skills, which can be seen best in Go and Dawson's Creek, are way beyond Leigh Ann Watson.
Marisa Coughlan, a relative newcomer, gives a hilarious, often over the top performance, delivering the strong dialogue and gimmicks (The Exorcist imitation comes to mind) perfectly from the screenplay. Barry Watson, who appears on the television hit 7th Heaven, doesn't bring his character to life as he could have, but the way the screenplay has him conducting himself is enough to form a semi strong character, even though Watson doesn't carry out the duty fully.
Williamson's lead four characters are so vivid and bursting with life, you wish they could have landed roles in a film that is as full as they are, but like last winter's The Faculty, which Kevin also wrote, Teaching Mrs. Tingle's characters and cast are the standouts, as the screenplay, setting, etc. become only an afterthought of the overall product. The screeplay isn't highly original and doesn't exactly break new ground, and shows signs around the edges of the average teen flick, which is a strong weakness, but Williamson's writing edge, which can be seen in every one of his movies, is shining big and bright here - The quick, sarcastic, snappy dialogue, the stereotypical characters, the dark humor, the suspense- What one could call Williamson-esque.
Teaching Mrs. Tingle is the most mediocre Williamson works as of yet, as the film isn't always interesting, as in the second half, repetitiveness becomes a strong problem for the film, but the characters power Teaching Mrs. Tingle from start to finish, as the screenplay just plods along.
It's impossible for a movie to be completely character driven and still be a great one, and that's where the problem lies in Teaching Mrs. Tingle. It's obvious that not much time and effort was spent bringing the potentially great screenplay to the big screen, as Williamson has stated many times that he is very busy with his upcoming television show, WasteLAnd, but if Williamson really wanted to add another strongly successful title to his genre, he could have at least polished up the screenplay with more originality and twists, instead of only concentrating on his quirky characters. Williamson's screenplay redeems itself for the most part in the final moments of the film, in the suspenseful, and hilarious climax, that you actually start feeling bad for the evil witch, that is Mrs. Tingle.
The Bottom Line- Teaching Mrs. Tingle isn't as clever or as edgy as Williamson's other works, but the stereotypical characters and strong performances from Mirren, Holmes, and Coughlan allow Tingle to be entertaining, summer fun.
The review above was posted to the
rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup (de.rec.film.kritiken for German reviews).
The Internet Movie Database accepts no responsibility for the contents of the
review and has no editorial control. Unless stated otherwise, the copyright
belongs to the author.
Please direct comments/criticisms of the review to relevant newsgroups.
Broken URLs inthe reviews are the responsibility of the author.
The formatting of the review is likely to differ from the original due
to ASCII to HTML conversion.
Related links: index of all rec.arts.movies.reviews reviews