Cameron Diaz fits perfectly into the role

Rating: 4/10 (12 July 2011)

Diaz plays money-seeking Elizabeth Halsey, a woman who somehow managed to become a teacher while waiting to marry her rich fiancé. She completes a year at her school doing the absolute bare minimum of teaching. But her fiancé dumps her after learning of her gold digging ways and now she finds herself stuck teaching at the school that she was just getting ready to leave for good. Elizabeth quickly learns that a new teacher played by Justin Timberlake comes from a very wealthy family. So she sets her radar on him as her next husband to be. He's the complete opposite of her, but that doesn't matter. He's very polite and rather nerdy. In fact, he's much more like Elizabeth's rival teacher Miss Squirrel. Once he starts getting close with the prissy Miss Squirrel, it becomes a battle of wits between the two women to be with him. But Elizabeth is out to get him for all the wrong reasons of course. While she sleeps through class and just plays movies for her students to watch, she spends the rest of her time trying to impress the wealthy new teacher and win him over. Advertisement
Timberlake, who's proved he can be very funny through all his appearances on Saturday Night Live, isn't really given much to do here. He just plays the clean-cut nerdy guy the best that he can. Jason Segal, who plays a fellow gym teacher, gets more of the laughs. His character sees right through Elizabeth but pursues her anyway. He goes along with everything she does but still makes sure to put her in check too. He's the one person at the school that she's able to relate to a little it seems. Watching the film you'll wonder if Elizabeth will find any sort of redemption and change her ways. You get the sense that Segal's character is the one person who can help her with that. The movie has some funny one-liners and interesting scenes, but I wouldn't say it's laugh-out-loud hilarious or anything. Still, it's a pretty funny premise and Cameron Diaz fits perfectly into the role. It's not a movie you'll remember down the road but it's worth checking out at least.