Bad Teacher Review

For those of you seeking another opinion afterthis fine review by my colleague Jez Sands, allow me to step in. Whilst Mr Sands raised very some very good and very pertinent points, I came away with a slightly different outlook on the film.

For those of you who missed Jez’s review, Bad Teacher sees Cameron Diaz star as a, um, bad teacher; a reprehensible, morally backward custodian of young minds, who after being rightfully jilted by her moneyed fiancée, sets about scamming the school where she works for as much money as possible in order to fund a boob job she believes she needs to attract another wealthy sucker (a plot so simple and politically incorrect, it’s a thing of genuine class). There are of course a would-be love interests in the form of Justin Timberlake’s clueless middle-class substitute teacher and Jason Segel’s amiable gym coach and a rival in Lucy Punch’s goody two-shoes teacher.

Cameron Diaz is hard not to like in the film. Sure, she’s playing a pretty nasty piece of work – she (hilariously) sneaks drinks at the desk, manipulates anyone within arm’s reach and could not remember her pupil’s names to save her life – but the woman’s charisma will win you over. Essential to her character’s unlikely likability is the fact that while she may be unpleasant, she is far from an idiot; in the hands of a lesser comedic talent than Diaz’s (whose abilities as a comedienne are sadly underrated), our lead character would not maintain the audience’s sympathies for much further beyond the first act.

It is these more off-beat comedies that Diaz excels in – films like her debut, The Mask, There’s Something About Mary and Being John Malkovich (if you can call that a comedy) – rather than the fluff such as Charlie’s Angels and My Sister’s Keeper that she sometimes goes for. Sooner or later, I’m sure she’ll star in some pseudo-highbrow prestige piece for which she’ll attempt for and probably win an Academy Award when her time comes around, but personally and in the long term, I reckon she’ll be more fondly remembered for these knockabout comedies.

Let’s not overlook Bad Teacher’s bad bits though – it takes way too long to start packing in the truly funny jokes, and more often than not I found myself smirking rather than belly laughing. It also drags somewhat, even for ninety minutes, with a whole load of extraneous stuff that goes on long after a fairly natural feeling end point has passed. It also feels as if there are too many pointless subplots going on that distract from us snorting at Diaz’s bad behaviour. There’s also a criminal shortage of Jason Segel, who improves every scene he’s in by a considerable factor.

That said though, I enjoyed Bad Teacher much more than I was expecting to. What I had assumed would be a fairly tame rom-com with perhaps a slight mean streak; I found a much bawdier and delightfully rude film, with much in common with the likes of Anchorman and Step Brothers. Juvenile and fairly delinquent it may be, but Bad Teacher knows how to have a good time.