Teaching Mrs. Tingle- Movie of the Day (2/1/10)

Teaching Mrs. Tingle (1999)
starring Helen Mirren, Katie Holmes, Barry Watson, Jeffrey Tambor, and Molly Ringwald
written and directed by Kevin Williamson

-Everybody has had one specific teacher, not a couple, but one in particular that made the learning experience all the more tortuous. Getting through high school can be a struggle all its own, but sometimes there's this monstrous force of nature hovering that you are convinced is against you. Perhaps this is why, despite whatever audiences might think about the other aspects of the film, there is hardly a person who has seen Teaching Mrs. Tingle that won't be able to recall such a character from their own past.

Helen Mirren plays the title character Mrs. Eve Tingle; the most feared teacher in a small town high school. Mrs. Tingle is hard on every student that comes her way, but manages to instill the most fear to the ones who deserve the most praise. Such a student is Leigh Ann Watson (Holmes); a top student who is on her way to being valedictorian and poised to win a scholarship to a big city college. However her future rests on whether or not she can pull off an A in Mrs. Tingle's history class. Offering to help, school bad boy Luke (Watson) steals a copy of Mrs. Tingle's final exam and presents it to Leigh Ann and fellow classmate Jo Lynn (Marisa Coughlan). Refusing to cheat, Leigh Ann turns down Luke's offer but almost as swiftly as she does, the three find themselves in the presence of Mrs. Tingle herself who believe the trio guilty of cheating. Later that night, when the three go to Mrs. Tingle's house to plead thier case, they are shown no mercy from thier teacher and when things turn hostile, Luke aims a bow and arrow at Mrs. Tingle, forcing her upstairs. The three decide to hold her hostage in her own home for just long enough to alter and submit their final grades. Things go awry however as the unsettlingly calm Mrs. Tingle begins a game of cat and mouse with the three students.

If Mrs. Tingle was just a strict teacher, then our three main heroes would be turned into villians. Yet it becomes quite clear early on that Mrs. Tingle does not want her students to find success on any level and in subtle ways does whatever she can to thwart their dreams and ambitions. In her mind, Mrs. Tingle instantly decides what everybody's future will be and gives nothing in the way of priase or encouragement. I feel one of the reasons this movie works as well as it does is becuase it is quite literally most high school student's fantasy to repay their educational tormentors for one reason or another. Admittedly though, the concept sounds somewhat dangerous. Released the same year that the high school killings in Littleton, CO took place, some saw slight parallels between the two, which might have indeed been responsible for the film's lackluster performance at the box office. But where the Littleton students were driven by hoplessness and rage for society, the students in Teaching Mrs. Tingle are driven by desperation and hope for their futures and while the former was clearly an act of vengence, the latter is most definitley one of justice.

Seasoned writer Williamson slips into the director's chair for the first (and to date, only) time and surprisingly does a worthwhile job. The balance between the moods of light thriller and dark comedy and handled perfectly and there are a requiste number of his trademark lines infused into the characters' personalities. Its hard to say what it is about this curious little film other than a first-rate villian or the main appeal of the central plot that makes one go back to this film. Indeed there is very little bloodshed within the proceedings and no large statement is made throughout the entire runtime. Despite this, Teaching Mrs. Tingle does indeed prompt rewatching every so often if for nothing else, to see a manifestation of that teacher you hated in high school get her due.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-mXbszOPC0g