The English Teacher (2013)

An English teacher's life is disrupted when a former student returns to her small town after failing as a playwright in New York.

Director:

Craig Zisk

Writers:

Dan Chariton, Stacy Chariton

Stars:

Julianne Moore, Michael Angarano, Greg Kinnear

Cast

Credited cast:
Julianne Moore	...	Linda Sinclair
Michael Angarano	...	Jason Sherwood
Greg Kinnear	...	Dr. Tom Sherwood
Lily Collins	...	Halle Anderson
Fiona Shaw	...	Narrator
Norbert Leo Butz	...	Vice Principal Phil Pelaski
Jessica Hecht	...	Principal Trudie Slocum
Charlie Saxton	...	Will
Nathan Lane	...	Carl Kapinas
Nikki Blonsky	...	Sheila Nussbaum
Sophie Curtis	...	Fallon Hughes
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Alan Aisenberg	...	Benjamin Meyer
Sasha Almedia-Beers	...	Waitress
Remy Auberjonois	...	Beefy Businessman
Poonam Basu	...	Kirthi

Storyline

Linda Sinclair (Julianne Moore) is a forty-year-old unmarried high school English teacher in the small town of Kingston, Pennsylvania. She shares a small apartment with two Siamese cats and her rich collection of great literature. She maintains no close personal relationships aside from those she has with her favorite authors and stories. Her life is far less complicated than the dramas she devours on the page, and she likes it that way. But Linda's simple life turns an unexpected page when former star pupil Jason Sherwood (Michael Angarano) returns to Kingston after trying to make it as a playwright in New York. Now in his 20s, Jason is on the verge of abandoning art, pressured by his overbearing father, Dr. Tom Sherwood (Greg Kinnear), to face reality and go to law school. Linda can't stand the thought of Jason giving up on his dreams so she decides to mount his play - a dark, angst-ridden, ambitious work - as a Kingston High School production, with flamboyant drama teacher Carl ...

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Plot Keywords:

teacher | female protagonist

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Taglines:

Refuse to live life by the book.

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Genres:

Comedy | Drama

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for language and some sexual content

Details

Official Sites:

Official site

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

26 April 2013 (USA)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Artina Films

Technical Specs

Runtime:

93 min

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Soundtracks

"Putting It together"
Written by Stephen Sondheim
Performed by Stephen Sondheim

User Reviews

Flunk off

It's kind of hard to find a film that fails on literally every level, but veteran TV director Craig Zisk's first feature does just that, and quite spectacularly.

It manages to defuse any sense of authenticity (and comedy) with either tasteless banalities, tone deaf slapstick, cliché-riddled characters, and a script that transcends unfunny into awkward, embarrassing, then just plain awful.

Just what did this movie want to be when it grew up? Perhaps we'll never know. Maybe it was a still birth from the start by fledging writers Dan and Stacy Chariton. It falls back on obviousness and sitcom posturing every time it gets close to taking us somewhere fresh. And neither have the chops to recycle classic screwball comedy successfully.

Julianne Moore can play comedy quite well, but nothing she can do here can possibly make us care about Linda Sinclair, the mousy title character whose sleeping romantic soul is stirred by the "true to life" play written by down-on-his-luck ex-student (Michael Angarano), many years her junior. When she's not trying to drown out the done-to-death "ironic" narration by Fiona Shaw, or trying to peer out from behind the subtle as a rock "grades" which constantly cross her (and our) vision in obnoxious overlays, she looks as if she's ready to flee the screen in embarrassment. She's given to shouting matches and screaming fits mostly...there isn't much in her performance or anyone else's that's not fraught with histrionics.

The supporting performances veer from "so what" (Greg Kinnear) to unbearable (Nathan Lane, who doesn't even look like he's having fun hamming it up, for once). The characters are nasty and self-absorbed without any trace of absurdity or self-reference. It's hard to feel anything for any of them. It's a good thing it fails as a comedy; it would be a nightmare as a drama.

There's a scene where a student criticizes Angarano and calls a stage slap he wrote "trite," to which Angarano responds by storming out. It's ironic really, because one envisions that the Charitons might do the same when faced with a similar critique about this film. It tries very hard, is a bit too earnest and overly sweet, and then has the audacity to demand we take it seriously when it hasn't done anything in its 93 minute runtime to merit it.