Hugh Grant is aging gracefully, now in his early 50s and a bit more stocky and starting to look like Pierce Brosnan. Here he is Keith Michaels who some years earlier had written the screen play for a movie that was very popular. When he meets new people they often say "That is my favorite movie of all time." But Keith has not had a script idea accepted in some time and needs work. His agent suggests he take the job for one semester as writing teacher at a college in New York.
So he flies from sunny and warm California to snowy and cold New York with a paid rental house and car. He decides he will do the minimum, collect his salary, and come up with his next script ideas. Students submit script ideas to be selected into his class, instead of actually reading the scripts he uses their social media profiles to select them. He gets an interesting mix including several very pretty girls. But he goes way too far when he tells the students, 5 minutes into the first class, write the rest of your script, it will take about 30 days, so our next class is in a month. Plus the quick affair with one of his pretty students doesn't help.
The college has standards and they are enforced by Allison Janney as professor Mary Weldon who also is the head of the ethics committee. His task is made even more difficult when he insults her favorite author during a faculty social. So eventually to keep from getting fired he has to convince her that he made a couple of honest mistakes and that he really is making a positive difference in the lives of his students.
One of his students is Marisa Tomei as Holly Carpenter, a single mother who also works at a number of different jobs when she is not in class. She and Keith strike up a friendship through all this and as the move ends it is not clear but we sense they may be getting together after all the dust settles.
Also good is J.K. Simmons as Dr. Lerner, the head of the department Keith is in. He has a way of putting events into a realistic perspective and tells Keith, if that were my 18-yr-old daughter in college and you did that, I'd be after you and I'd probably kill you.
All in all a bit better movie than I expected it to be.
So he flies from sunny and warm California to snowy and cold New York with a paid rental house and car. He decides he will do the minimum, collect his salary, and come up with his next script ideas. Students submit script ideas to be selected into his class, instead of actually reading the scripts he uses their social media profiles to select them. He gets an interesting mix including several very pretty girls. But he goes way too far when he tells the students, 5 minutes into the first class, write the rest of your script, it will take about 30 days, so our next class is in a month. Plus the quick affair with one of his pretty students doesn't help.
The college has standards and they are enforced by Allison Janney as professor Mary Weldon who also is the head of the ethics committee. His task is made even more difficult when he insults her favorite author during a faculty social. So eventually to keep from getting fired he has to convince her that he made a couple of honest mistakes and that he really is making a positive difference in the lives of his students.
One of his students is Marisa Tomei as Holly Carpenter, a single mother who also works at a number of different jobs when she is not in class. She and Keith strike up a friendship through all this and as the move ends it is not clear but we sense they may be getting together after all the dust settles.
Also good is J.K. Simmons as Dr. Lerner, the head of the department Keith is in. He has a way of putting events into a realistic perspective and tells Keith, if that were my 18-yr-old daughter in college and you did that, I'd be after you and I'd probably kill you.
All in all a bit better movie than I expected it to be.