Hard to sit through this one, and if that's what you want, then by all means it's worth a rental. Basically, two characters, a male professor and a female student. The way I understand it, Mamet's play about power differentials is supposed to strike a balanced, provocative view. The first half of it, we're generally supposed to sympathize with the student, the second half with the professor. Problem with the movie is, neither character comes off as likeable enough for one to keep very interested in what happens. The professor (to whom the movie in general is stacked in favor) is a reasonable though somewhat smug fellow, though in the final climactic scene, all sympathy evaporates with his actions. And sympathy for the female student evaporates much sooner. She is at best a humorless, naive zombie and at worst a monstrous extortionist. Anyhow, there's no way you believe for a second that she'd be flunking the guy's class, especially with the assiduous way she scribbles down in her notebook every little thing he says (like Egghead from those Foghorn Leghorn cartoons). Both come off as somewhat hypocritical (why is the professor teaching in a system he has utter contempt for? why is the student going to such lengths to protest her grade from a system she over-idealizes?) Very depressing material.
