Bad Teacher - an understatement

Rating: 5/10 (24 September 2011)

This was a light, fun movie, however the message and plot was a bit twisted. Elizabeth Halsey (played by Cameron Diaz) was the proverbial bad teacher that tried any and everything to jump to the finish line and in the end she did. The only problem with this movie is what kind of message does it send to viewers after all the laughs are over? Is it that drug abuse, breaking the law and cheating are okay and you get rewarded in the end? The movie is about a teacher who starts teaching for all the wrong reasons – she doesn't take the children seriously and the only thing she is concerned about is making a quick buck to get a boob job. Her engagement is called off at the start of the movie when she runs up a 16 grand bill and her fiancé and his mother realizes that she is just interested in his money. She ends up having to go back to teaching and makes the kids watch movies for the entire class instead of following the syllabus. When she finds out there is a five grand bonus for the teacher whose kids gets the highest scores on the state test, she pulls out all the stops and goes back to the books. It is only then that the audience realizes that if she really applies herself she is not that bad a teacher after all. However, she realizes how little time she has and goes to great lengths to con her way into getting a copy of the test before it is administered.
During the course of the movie she latches onto a new (nerdy) teacher Scott Delacorte (played by Timberlake) only because of the fact that his family has money. All the while she ignores the advances of the gym teacher who is really genuinely interested in her. Meanwhile another female teacher Amy Squirrel (played by Lucy Punch) is plotting against her to have her fired but it backfires each and every time and in the end she loses her boyfriend (Scott) and is accused of drug use when she purposely switches desks with Elizabeth. It ends with said teacher being transferred to a non-performing school and Scott now suddenly interested in Elizabeth. She turns him down and starts dating the gym teacher who transforms her into a better person and next fall she is promoted to Guidance Counselor. Of course she does not get the boob job in the end.
I give this movie 5 stars.