The Tutor (2023) User Reviews

Lifetime movie on Netflix

[sugarnspices · 5/10 · 16 July 2023]

This movie started with some potential, got so frustrating mid way through I almost turned it off, then took a turn that was...ok? Spoilers below....

Did you know tutoring has a Wolf of Wall Street type broker that talks the big talk at strip clubs, always has his feet up on the desk in a nice suite, pumping up his Tutor off to the next big deal to score it big?? Me either.

When our Tutor first gets to the house we meet: the druggie Calvin Klein model that is just...lounging about, semi normal girls...lounging about, and then super uptight "17" year old kid that's wound tighter than a drum, creepily stalking about. I can go with this.

Once our Tutor is drugged and then tossed in a lake (that he so conveniently wakes up from while sinking. AND his bag, with laptop, phone, professional camera...shoot, the whole dang brief case is waiting for him just off shore RIGHT where he pulls himself out at...he then knows exactly where he is and FOOTS it home in the middle of the night. His gf is just peeved he is late! He missed the doctors appointment AGIAN. Not "oh my god you were drugged and almost drowned, WTF let's get you to the hospital, call the police NOW"??

There's some horrendous acting from Will Byers, like he is lucky he was cast in something that became a phenomenon 8 years ago when he was a cute kid horrendous, bc poor chap would be hard pressed to land a lifetime movie now.

Blah, blah, blah....the ending. I WILL say I had no idea it would turn out our Tutor is/was this crazed killer....of a character that is barley mentioned or had no big back story and was sort of thrown in towards the end.

Finally, Tutor's pregnant gf, that had absolutely no idea her polished, handsome, soon to be father of her baby whom she is madly in love with, is a two faced psycho murder - until she so happens to walk up AS HE IS ADMITTING to him murdering...casually hangs around till the morning hours with a kid she's "met" twice and all she basically says is "did they find the body"? THE BODY!? Your world has been completely shattered, turned upside down, your future child that you will now have alone and always know the father was an unhinged murder and you refer to him as the body?? I can't. I mean she does have her arms crossed and looks displeased. Oh, she throws in something like "ya think you know someone, amiright!?!"

5 stars for not know he killed home girl and he was so fine in Tron.

D- for this tutor

[Boristhemoggy · 4/10 · 30 April 2023]

I watched this simply because Garett Hedlund starred and he's always been a solid actor. However he did his best in this film, but he was failed by an awful plot, silly dialogue and terrible acting from Noah Schnapp.

The story is OK I guess, a private tutor is hired for a rich boy and then is terrorised by the boy. But apart from Noah Schnapp looking as if he was in his 30's and not 17, also his acting was terrible so I never got on board with his character.

Victoria Justice looked pretty but she failed to support Hedlund because she can't act either.

But when I totally lost interest was when he got poisoned, woke up being dumped in a lake to be drowned, and went home as if nothing had happened. To face a childish teenage type row with his jealous girlfriend.

I watched to the end even though I knew how it was going to go, but that was for the sake of completeness. Not because I enjoyed it.

If you're thinking of watching this you'd be better off pressure washing your drive, or cleaning the wheelie bin, or bather the dog.

Starts out promising, then descends into a nonsensical farfetched story.

[imseeg · 5/10 · 15 April 2023]

The good: the start of this movie was quite promising. There was a certain intrigue hanging in the air, that was kinda fascinating. BUT...

The bad: after half an hour there is 1 particular plot turn that didnt make sense AT ALL. However mysterious this movie was at the start, the entire mystery collapsed because of this ridiculous plot turn.

MORE ridiculous plot turns were about to follow though. And the ending I simply could not take seriously any longer.

This is another movie that I got suckered into thinking it would be a thrilling mystery, only realisin half way through it was ANOTHER BADLY WRITTEN SCRIPT.

The plot holes are so big they have their own gravitational field

[Jim_Screechy · 3/10 · 16 April 2023]

I sat down to watch this one and enjoyed it for the first half hour. I'd not heard of this movie so had high hopes for a fulfilling viewing experience given what I'd seen up to that point had been pretty solid... aside from a seriously questionable decision from the production hair stylist for our leading character.

Things then got so bizarre with an incredulous plot twist, that a black hole appeared and swallowed up the all common sense, sound reasoning, and logical progression that normal film making enjoys.

I called it a day after 45 minutes for fear of disappearing into the abyss of infinite absurdity.

3/10 for the first 30 minutes 0/10 for everything after.

The Girl friend acting was terrible, stupid plot and no smart decisions

[christenalovesall-53615 · 5/10 · 16 April 2023]

It's odd and seem like it's going to be good but the whole storyline is terrible. How can you have no communication with anyone and not tell anyone what's going on. If you see a bunch of teenagers messing with you why indulge? I understand the other reviews when they said the writer was halfway drunk when he wrote this. Then for the girl friend to not support him any type of why. How can you not understand facts that's right in your face. Then why not go to the police from the start, why try to investigate on your own. The actions in this movie makes 100 percent no sense. And for a friend to no support you says a lot.

Good start, but bad ending

[christianfagrell · 5/10 · 15 April 2023]

I think the movie had a good start, with a scary mystery vibe and good acting. Then from nowhere something is revealed and I was thinking "what?". This plot reveal is illogical and I felt like the mystery was all gone. Now the story changed from something to something completely different.

After that it just escalated, and I also think the actors overplayed their characters a bit.

The main question is why the main character choose to tutor this specific teenager. Yes, they keep saying "we need the money" but that is very thin explanation.

The story is actually very simple and they try to make it complicated without success.

Ok, but one review missed a huge point...

[Farfallina78 · 6/10 · 16 April 2023]

While I also thoroughly enjoyed the first 45 minutes more than the rest, one reviewer missed a large piece of the story. No, the home where Ethan, the tutor, went to work with Jackson was NOT the sprawling estate Jackson grew up in. They literally show us this when Ethan discovers he's been tutoring in a different home the entire time (because as he returned to chew Jackson out, a family just back from holiday arrived and had to idea who TF he was or why he was there. Jackson set this up with his friend...the same girl from the pics. She even winks so it's not hard to understand.) So no, Ethan would NOT have recognized the home--as we find out he had an affair with Jackson's mother years prior.

In any case the movie turned into dramatic Lifetime type fare which I didn't hate, yet expected more based on the first half. The last 10 minutes were rushed and like I said, the very end was especially Lifetime-esque.

Acting was a bit hammy, but overall I was entertained enough to pass an afternoon. Recommend for those who like Lifetime/Tubi thrillers and don't expect anything Oscar level.

im so confused

[anoenymous · 2/10 · 27 April 2023]

Cant believe i waste my time watching this. So bad its confusing, they should rename the movie to 'I Don't Know' because it seems thats whats been going on. The main character doesnt know what happen, the girlfriend doesnt know what happen, the audience doesnt know what happen. How can the tutor keep on taking the job when the kid is so weird like cant u move somewhere else? Why dont u make a police report? And why doesnt the girlfriend believe him? I keep finding myself wanting to skip all the way to the end.........................

Well at least Victoria Justice still got a job after her music career tanks.

Why did the math tutor go to the beach? To improve his tan-gent!

[frank-liesenborgs · 6/10 · 16 April 2023]

The film started off on a promising note, with an eerie mystery vibe and strong performances from the cast. However, the story took a bizarre turn that left me scratching my head in confusion. The mystery was suddenly stripped away, and the plot veered off in a completely different direction that was more disappointing than intriguing. The film seemed to rely on the vague explanation of "needing money" to justify this sudden shift in the storyline, but it did little to clarify the situation. After this unexpected plot was revealed, the movie lost its charm and became predictable and dull. Despite the initial aura of mystery, the entire plot became too obvious and uninteresting. It was a shame that the film had a lot of potential, but it was ultimately ruined by this ridiculous plot twist. Although the actors did a decent job, it was not enough to save the movie from its flaws. In the end, I can only give this film a modest rating of 5.5 out of 10, which I would round up to 6. As for whether it is worth watching, it's up to you to decide.

Its like the writer got drunk half way through

[ericadunstan-30211 · 3/10 · 16 April 2023]

Before it was written the concept was good...very bad execution of a movie that had so much potential. I will find it hard to go in to heaps of detail without giving spoilers. But the basic premise i feel would be that as a watcher of a psychological thriller you start of making judgements on whether a particular person is a good or bad character and then they try and flip the story plot that people who you thought were good are bad vice versa. The problem lies they way they introduce new elements completely changing a previous persons character and motive. At one point i thought it was going to be a female arch which would have been a good change to the norm as 90% of film writing is written from the male perspective.

Pretty boring ngl

[elliekheda · 20 May 2023]

The film itself had many flaws, like how jackson showed up at the restaurant where annie and ethan were. It was pretty confusing, it is a slow plot. Gets boring halfway through until the actual drama. The ending felt unfinished, empty. Like something else was supposed to happen. Like annie was to adopt jackson or take care of jackson after, because of their shared trauma after what happened with ethan. The beginning of the movie is okay, it takes forever to get to the point of the movie, a bunch of plotholes. And very predictable. Nonetheless the acting is amazing! Noah schnapp did an amazing job at playing Jackson's unpredictable spontaneously dramatic character, really brought it to life. And victoria justice, being the queen she is and playing annie perfectly.

Great acting! There's plot holes but a very enjoyable watch!

[camerclarisa · 8/10 · 27 March 2023]

This movie is very well acted, which is the reason why I enjoyed it. Very tense scenes, all the twists and turns made me stay on the edge of my seat.

Garret plays Ethan, the tutor who is assigned an unexpected task at a mansion, he then finds himself becoming the obsession of his student, Jackson (played by Noah) who threatens to expose him.

I hate giving away too much of a movie, I am the type that hates watching most trailers as I feel like it spoilers too much so all I am going to say is that if you like thrillers and a good 'guilty pleasure' movie then you will enjoy this.

There's plot holes, it gets a little messy at times but it's that type of movie that you can just sit back and just thoroughly enjoy. The reason why I give this an 8 (a high score) is because of the overall enjoyment factor. Garrett, Victoria and Noah are all great in this.

Well acted and suspenseful

[filmguyci-22804 · 6/10 · 25 March 2023]

Garrett Hedlund plays Ethan, a professional tutor, who gets a high paying live in job teaching a wealthy teenager. The teen is creepy from the beginning and something seems very off about the whole situation. Ethan stays anyway as he and his girlfriend are expecting a baby, and they need the money.

Hedlund is excellent in this and the film keeps you guessing. Any sane person would have been out of there pretty quickly but then there would be no film. Still, the twist was unexpected and satisfying even if it sorta comes out of left field.

This is a decent thriller that keeps you interested. Recommended if you are willing to overlook the plot holes and just go with it.

I am easy to please with this genre of movies but this one sucked.

[halkatla-77828 · 3/10 · 30 April 2023]

I was bored right from the start. Everything was clunky and almost nothing made sense. Like, why didn´t the boy pretend to be dumb? It would have been cool if he acted stupid but then suddenly showed how bright he was, but no, he couldn´t even lie a little bit? That was a weird choice... A scary villain needs some mystery. I predicted the ending easily. The main characters should have built up a friendly relationship in order for us to care at all. Then the back story came out of nowhere, like a corny melodrama lol I could almost say that literally every line in the script was off. It was disjointed, just going from one big (stupid) twist to the next without connecting them together. Although, in a way I am glad they didn´t do that because then the movie would have been longer and I kept nodding off through out, thinking about the fun I would have going to bed early just as soon as I had finished watching it. I don´t know why but I expected way more.

The actress who played the girlfriend is very pretty but she can´t act, everyone else was blah except Noah who played creepy rather well.

The plot holes and continuity flaws ruin this movie!

[Chartreuse1 · 5/10 · 21 April 2023]

With Garrett Hedlund in the lead role, I was expecting a film way better than what we get. He was great in On the Road. Not this time, not this movie which was all over the place with its poor sequencing.. He plays Ethan who tutors a rich kid named Jackson for $2500 a day! But Jackson develops an unhealthy attachment to Ethan who will soon be a father. Jackson definitely has a screw loose and he along with his cousin, Chris, plot revenge on Ethan because he humiliated Jackson who just happens to show up at a dinner out with Ethan and his gf and had an affair with his mother who died! This tired plot has been done countless times and way better! Noah Schnapp who plays disturbed Jackson played the role well but even he couldn't save the movie's weak execution, time jumps,. And key number of plot pitfalls! I so wanted to like this movie but it falls flat! NOT recommended unless you're bored out of your skull!!!.

Omg so bad

[jmgimbel · 2/10 · 23 May 2023]

I'm finished listening to IMDB reviews. This movie is all over the place. Victoria Justice can't act. Garret is a bit awful/odd not sure cuz this movie's so laughable it's not worth deciding. The rest of the cast didn't have anything to work with since there's little plot. The concept wasn't a bad one but you actually need a SCRIPT and a STORY. This lacks any kind of coherence in any form. I keep thinking Hetlund's hair is going to fly away? I do not understand why young filmmakers don't work on the most important aspects of storytelling. We'd like to care about at least one character. We'd like a story to follow. I love Noah and hope he's offered better roles in the future.

Not even hilariously bad. Pull your hair out bad yes

[domotime2 · 1/10 · 11 July 2023]

What in the world was this??? No character acted in any sort of rational way the entire film. Like at all. I don't even know where to begin. He gets drugged and ends up at the bottom of a lake and after he goes home and says, "ugh that was annoying, I think somethings up with this kid" . And then the wife gets mad at him??? How dare you miss out appointment.

The problem lies that we have no back story at all to who this tutor guy is. They sprinkle in back story here and there but you're so lost that it doesn't matter. What kind of tutoring company is this? Is this tutor guy good at his job...like I assumed he was really smart or something, but he acts like an idiot the whole time?

I legit don't understand what the hell was going on at all. I hate this movie. I hate everyone involved.

Better than the average movie

[ylopez-23794 · 7/10 · 9 July 2023]

Wow..... after reading these reviews. I was about to pull the plug and not see the movie. Glad I didn't do that. Saw the movie. I was like wooow flabbergasted.

Let me just say I suffer from some ADHD so it's very hard for me to focus. I have to do like 12 things at the same time. So I was watching this movie I am entertained. I was able to follow through without issues. I really liked it. I have to say Garret Headlund is amazing. I have always liked him ever since I saw "country Strong". Granted he had done Friday night lights. Never saw that show. His presence and that voice is amazing! Watch it.

Did they write this as they went?

[youtwobeen · 3/10 · 1 May 2023]

Well I definitely know why they labeled this movie as a Mystery, but it's not to do with the genre. It's a Mystery because the first 30 minutes its got that creepy plot twist feeling but than you see the credits and are like how did we get here .. it's a mystery.

Almost like a couple people got together and made a trailer. Got it sold but we're like. "Crap, all our good ideas were in the trailer" let's just throw another plot twist in and jump the timeline no one will notice because after 30 minutes they are probably lost anyhow so just roll the credits. Now I am just writing anything to get the minimum characters to post this.

Don't listen to the critics with this one.

[lann-45980 · 7/10 · 25 March 2023]

This is a fun movie to watch with friends or on a date. Edge of your seat stuff. It's not a masterpiece but it's enjoyable. If you liked the movie Crush or Obsessed then you will enjoy this. Noah is really great in this, he plays Jackson really well and gives it his all, I really want to see Noah play more character like this. Noah is really overlooked as an actor and only really seen as Will Byers but there's massive potential. Good performances all around (Garrett is just incredible in nearly every role he ever gets!!) The movie is a little all over the place at times but we enjoyed this. I liked the twist but I know some that didn't. The critics are way to harsh with the ratings of this movie for no good reason.

Literally WHAT? Spoilers:

[hollykoglin · 1/10 · 12 July 2023]

The amount of plot holes in this is obscene. The story fails to follow through on the twists it tries to present. If Jackson's dad spoke to Ethan's boss about alleged accusations, but he is actually dead, then Ethan could get his job back in like 10 seconds once he figured this out. How could Jackson even provide these allegations if the tutoring job wasn't legit? Who was paying Ethan this whole time? What's the deal with the creepy girls and weird cousin? Who's house are they in at the end of the movie? Who's house was it at the beginning of the movie? Was the butler in on the joke all together? There are so many unanswered questions that are essential details to the story that need to be answered if this is going to be a better rated movie. Along with things not adding up, the acting was horrendous. I couldn't take one bit of this seriously.

I really enjoyed it.

[rocketsfan-22396 · 10/10 · 14 July 2023]

I'm pretty shocked to see the reviews that this movie is getting. I thought the story telling was wonderful. I was on the edge of my seat watching this movie. I would watch it again and I can't say that about most movies that I watch. I loved the ending of this movie. I am glad that I didn't let the bad reviews stop me from checking it out. I guess you can't make everyone happy about a movie. I though the acting was pretty good in this movie. I have definitely seen worse movies and worse acting in movies. It's on Netflix and it's definitely worth your time to watch it. Dont let the bad reviews stop you from watching it.

Above average but not mind-blowing. Would definately recommend!

[0x0000000078 · 7/10 · 14 April 2023]

Wasn't expecting much considering I don't really watch movies with barely any votes on the rating (60 votes at time of writing this). The movie was better than I had expected but nothing mind blowing. I usually give average movies a 6, but this movie deserved a 7 as I think it was a bit better than average.

If you're in to movies with a bunch of twists, you'll most likely enjoy this. It didn't have a slow start, everything was at a great pace. Towards the end, it has your full attention, waiting to see what happens next. Movie didn't leave me with that disappointing feeling of a bad ending.

The acting was also great, especially by Garrett Hedlund. Honestly don't know much about him, but would like to see more of his past work after seeing this.

The whole thing rests on one ridiculous plot hole

[tomqcollins · 5/10 · 15 April 2023]

I agree with most of the user reviews here that this one started off kinda cool and promising. There was definitely a nice mysterious vibe to it, sorta like "The Game" with Michael Douglas back in the day.

The remainder of this review contains spoilers.

Problem is, that literally the entire story from the time the tutor, Ethan, gets the phone call to the end was predicated on an intellectually insulting plot hole, or, being kinder to the writers/director, a very dishonest ploy on their part to keep the audience in the dark. I suppose that they could have pulled it off if they'd tried something different. For example, maybe if Jackson and his father had moved to a different property than the one where his mother died. After all, nothing in the film clued the audience into the fact that Ethan had been to the property where he was paid to tutor many times in the past, ostensibly to tutor some other kid* - AND - where he had the affair with Jackson's mom. But we are left completely in the dark to this crucial fact because the writers/director were aiming to make this the big reveal rather than what most of us probably expected - i.e., rather than Ethan being the truly guilty party, instead we get to the bottom of what Jackson's problem or motivation is (and/or Jackson gets neutralized) at the end.

But the way the story line was handled, we're expected to believe that for whatever reason, Ethan displayed zero familiarity with the property, Jackson was an only child and we guess much younger at the time of the affair/murder who Ethan was initially called upon to tutor, but never got around to it and had an affair with the mom instead? This makes zero sense, however, because again if Ethan had been there before, met Jackson (at whatever age, say 5 years prior), had an affair with the mother who ended up dying in Ethan's company under suspicious circumstances, then why would he even take the tutoring gig? Does this make sense? Let me lay it out more plainly one more time:

1. Several years ago you're called out to a very lavish, unforgettable estate to tutor a privileged kid who is probably aged 9-13 at the time.

2. You end up having an affair with his mother. You may or may not have ever tutored the kid, but you'd think that you'd at least have met him and if so you'd recognize him several years later. At teh very least you will always recognize/remember the property.

3. You either on purpose or accidentally kill the kid's mom and somehow get away with it. You are questioned by the police but nothing comes of it despite a secret coroner's report saying that no water was found in the lungs of the alleged drowning victim. Mkay.

4. You move on with your life and meet a new fiancee, she becomes pregnant and you are still a private tutor for a living.

5. One day your boss/whatever calls you and says you have been specifically asked for by a family and they'll pay you $2,500/day to tutor their kid, so long as you stay on the property for as long as it takes for him to achieve whatever objective (higher test score?) he's aiming for.

6. You get there and you must realize, uh oh, this is where I killed that lady and this kid will recognize me, WTF am I doing here, I should immediately leave and stay as far away from this place and this family as possible. But you don't. Nope. Knowing that you got away with a murder on this estate, you proceed to follow through and meet with the kid, who somehow you don't recognize at all, all the while pretending that you've never been there (including to the audience who has no reason to suspect anything until the first mention of the affair well into the run time).

7. You realize that the kid of the woman you murdered had been stalking you and your pregnant fiancee, and rather than doing what you should have done in #6 and GTFO for good, you continue to tutor the kid!

Ridiculous. This movie was entertaining until the end, but the problem is that the end ruined everything that came before it. I'm giving it 5/10 stars because it was competently made, started off quite well, and had us guessing for a little bit. The cinematography is good too, and the audience believes that Ethan is the innocent party for as long as the director lies to us that he was. I really think that this story line still could have worked if they'd done a few things differently like having the tutoring sessions be at a new property, explaining clearly to the audience that Ethan never actually met Jackson before (and how that would be possible since he was having an affair with his mother while ostensibly tutoring the kid!). If a plausible background had been provided, the "reveal" at the end could have genuinely worked. Instead it didn't and it ruined the movie for us.

A thriller written by ChatGPT

[adipesh · 1/10 · 10 July 2023]

This felt like someone cut up a bunch of plot points from a freshman writing class and pasted them together, and then gave it to a director who watched a bunch of obsession movies from the nineties. The acting was one dimensional, the "plot twists" were visible at least twenty minutes ahead of time, and the ending felt like it was tacked on as a reshoot after poor screenings. At least three times I asked out loud "why are we still watching this?"

Any rational person in the nation character's shoes would have quit the job after day two. By day three, he should have been calling the police. But this one just keeps going and going, showing up for work despite the obvious instability of the client.

Go watch Hard Candy instead.