A Teacher's Crime (2008)

Admirable film.

Absolutely Brilliant!

Great movie. Not sure what people expected but I found it highly entertaining.

Not sure how, but this is easily one of the best movies all summer. Multiple levels of funny, never takes itself seriously, super colorful, and creative.

A soapish film about a student (Erik Knudsen) and his evil uncle (because all uncles in the movies are evil) who set up a teacher (Ashley Jones) by taking photos allegedly showing her engaged in sexual misconduct with Erik Knudsen's character, and then they blackmail her. There are so many problems with this movie that I do not know where to begin. The whole set up is preposterous and the script was not ready to be made into a movie. The so-called sexual misconduct is not sexual at all, because anyone looking at the photos can see that Ashley Jones' character is just hugging the student who is going through a rough patch (though he does not demonstrate this convincingly) There is not a single sympathetic character in this entire movie, including the teacher and the troubled student (the director and writers killed both of his parents off - the first in the battlefield of Bosnia-Herzegovina, in a vain effort to generate sympathy for this kid), and therefore we as the audience do not have a good reason to care about any of them. The teacher's husband is a complete douchbag because he inexplicably cheats on his attractive wife (Ashley Jones) with an ugly, sleazy bar maid. I have no idea what is wrong with their marriage and the film does not really explain this aspect in any satisfactory way, except to suggest some silly husband-father in law tension that makes no sense. I also noticed that, unlike more mature films, the Ashley Jones' character and the husband do not work to resolve their conflict. They just decide to be angry with each other in the first half of the film and reconciled in the second half. In that connection, the acting is terrible because not a single character seems to believe in their lines or in the roles that they are supposed to play.If director Robert Malenfant and writers Christine Conradt and Corbin Mezner did something creative with the plot, then perhaps this film could be saved from the trash bin. For example, maybe this film could have a twist where the teacher (Ashley Jones) does fall in love with the student (Knudsen) and they have a sexual relationship and the relationship is followed by a betrayal when she realizes that she is being blackmailed. Or maybe have a plot where the teacher is smart enough to figure out that the student is trying to blackmail her and then she rejects him. But afterwards, the student develops an unhealthy sexual obsession about his teacher (Ashley Jones) and spirals into depression and madness when he realizes that she will always be out of reach. If they did something like that, then at least the movie would be a little more interesting and far less predictable than this drivel. Thumbs way down. Easily one of the worst films of 2008.

I was immensely disappointed at this halfhearted effort to produce a thriller/crime story. I was expecting some well developed characters who have more than one dimension and an interesting plot.What I watched was nothing like that. Instead, the characters are like paper cutouts with no depth. The main character is just too good to be real. Always perfectly coiffed, even after getting out of bed. Her husband is a no-good philanderer with a failed business. Her father is caricature from the Andy Griffith Show.The basic plot has some interesting potential, but the film makers just didn't have enough guts to find it.I just don't recommend this to anyone who wants to be entertained with a creative and thought provoking film.

The movie puts far too heavy emphasis on the weak dialogue. Simply put, the people in this movie talk like books, and it really shows. The roles of the actors are unanimously archetypal and lack any and all depth. Probably the weakest thing in the film is Ashley Jones's acting, which is clearly not at the level necessary for a dialogue heavy film-- her portrayal of a teacher is completely unconvincing.The plot was not altogether terrible but poor directing simply made this movie an assembly line of clichés (the plot could have been salvaged with strong acting, good script, and a greater focus on either horror, or relevant pressing issues. Not to mention the plot is neither plausible nor remotely menacing. The cinematography is amateurish and the script was overwritten and juvenile.The part of the film that almost makes it comedic, is the score. At scarcely rare moments when i found myself actually feeling sorry for Jeremy Rander's character, a much too over the top song would start playing. This made the movie an almost unintentional satire and hilarious to make fun of.One thing they did right in the film was the pacing; the thanklessly weak plot managed to progress smoothly.Watch only if u get some kind of enjoyment in bad films.

I understand Army Wives is a significant departure from the standard Lifetime fare. I assume that's why the premiere of its second season scored record-breaking ratings. Most of the women's cable channel productions are meant for stay-at-home wives and mothers, and females who enjoy stories about being victimized. This one, however, reaches new lows: bad acting, worse writing and a bad plot line. I think soap operas are better than this and I don't even watch them. The chilling message in "A Teacher's Crime" is that teachers should not get close to or go above and beyond to help their students or they might wind up being accused of having affairs with them. Instead of being dedicated to their profession, public school teachers who watch this may decide that they should just put in the time until they retire, collect their benefits and retire with big pensions at taxpayers' expense. Ironically, I watched this movie on Father's Day weekend when Lifetime was showing "good dad, bad dad" fare. The emphasis apparently is "bad dad," standard for this male-hating cable channel.