Movie review by: Michelle
Click here for pictures The title was originally Killing Mrs.
Tingle, but given the increasing rash of real-life school killings, it was changed. There
may be a loss of audience among some amateurs of teacher-murder, but since there are no
corpses in the film, "Teaching" is a better title and has the benefit of catchy
alliteration. Yet even then, the name Tingle sends the wrong message. It would have been
fine if it evoked someone who does things to you, such as appeal or titillation.
On the other hand, could this be an attempt at irony, Mrs T's a master of put-downs
which inevitably make all wilt in her presence and all hate her. She even uses her
unpleasantness to get her wishes via innuendoes, as when she blackmails the principal
whose secret (he's in Alcoholics Anonymous) she knows.
The story: graduating Leigh Ann Watson (Katie Holmes) is the top candidate for
valedictorian. All she needs is another A, which will get her a college scholarship -
indispensable, since her mother (a single) does not have the means to pay tuition. The
girl slaves over a first-rate project for her history class, which she presents to Mrs.
Tingle. Probably jealous of Leigh's looks and promising future, and, as later revealed,
frustrated by her own life (she was herself a student in that school and had been unable
to leave that small town), Mrs T deprecates the project and gives Leigh a grade of C.
Desperate Leigh and her best friend Marisa (a lively actress wannabe), run into
classmate Barry, a good-looking slacker on whom Marisa has a crush on. He has just gotten
an illegal copy of the history final. Horrified, Leigh takes it away from him, puts it in
her bag. In one of the first artificial developments of the movie, Mrs. T walks in,
somehow spots the exam, and guarantees expulsion for Leigh. The youngsters, trying vainly
to explain Leigh's innocence, have to resort to a visit to Mrs. T's home but the teacher,
considering them as invaders, throws them out.
The movie is a waste of the audience's time and of the performers' abilities, including
Molly Ringwald. She has been relegated to a tiny, innocuous part as office help and
substitute teacher. Michael McKean, that superbly versatile actor of film (Coneheads, etc,
etc.), which cries out for expansion. Otherwise, the movie belongs entirely to Ms Mirren.
England's Helen Mirren has been on much TV and many films for decades. She is a great
actress who, in the USA at least, in spite of dozens of movies in which she held main or
supporting roles, is far from a household name. The reasons? She is a mature woman and not
the regulation gorgeous chick. Her Mrs. Tingle showcases her talent. Not only as a demonic
teacher, but also as a diabolical captive who manipulates her captors with speech - while
tied to her bed. Proud, coaxing, menacing, scheming, attempting to disunite the
youngsters, and eventually pathetic, she does not merely steal the show, she IS the show.
But even Ms. Mirren cannot save this concoction where contrived drama and would-be humor
co-exist without ever hitting their marks.
