2.5 stars. Rated PG-13, for sexual candor, profanity and nude sketches
By Derrick Bang
I cannot imagine what people were thinking.
This film is being marketed as a
frothy romantic comedy involving a New England prep school English teacher and
an art instructor, who encourage their respective students to engage in a
friendly rivalry to determine whether words or pictures are the superior form
of communication. Meanwhile, of course, the two instructors fall in love.
 |
| At first blush — and demonstrating excellent taste — Dina (Juliette Binoche) wants nothing to do with the arrogant and conceited Jack (Clive Owen). But she cannot help being intrigued by his proposal that their respective students embrace a challenge to determine the comparative value of language, spoken or written, and images, drawn, painted or photographed. So, game on! |
Don’t believe it. That’s a serious distortion of the truth.
Gerald Di Pego’s original
screenplay actually concerns an arrogant, alcoholic English instructor who lays
waste to everything and everybody in his orbit, committing an escalating series
of reprehensible acts while sliding further and further into uncontrolled
drinking. The story is a downer from its opening scenes, with a few more dreary
details thrown in as sidebar elements, just in case the central plot isn’t
depressing enough.
Evidence suggests, after
completion, that saner heads recognized this film as a stinker, since it sought
U.S. release for almost a year. The eventual takers — Lionsgate and Roadside
Attractions — must have been reluctant suitors, because the online press
materials are minimal (only four photos from which to choose, instead of the
usual two or three dozen), and most visibly because the film has been dumped
quietly during an early summer season dominated by much glitzier popcorn
flicks.
Fair enough. I just can’t figure
out what prompted stars such as Clive Owen and Juliette Binoche to accept the
assignment in the first place. Under no circumstances could Di Pego’s script
have seemed reasonable, let alone rational. And although veteran director Fred
Schepisi (Roxanne, Last Orders and Empire Falls, among others) gamely coaxes strong performances from
his two leads, that can’t change the fact that they’re trying to make a silk
purse from a sow’s ear.
Owen plays Jack Marcus, a
charismatic honors English instructor at Maine’s bucolic Croyden Prep, who has
long coasted on the adulation of students who enjoy his playful nature. But
these “likable big brother” characteristics, which teens find so enchanting,
are viewed as irritating and condescending by almost all of Jack’s colleagues.
The lone exception is Croyden’s history instructor, Walt (Bruce Davison), a
longtime friend who occasionally indulges Jack’s fondness for intricate word
games.
Jack’s most visible problem is an
ongoing slide into alcoholism, with lunchtime nips of vodka having blossomed
into drunken public displays that have gotten him blackballed at a tony local
restaurant. In part, Jack’s drinking results from professional panic; although
hired as a noted author and poet, back in the day, he hasn’t been able to write
anything for years.
