Themes: Teachers and Students, Authority Figures, Kidnapping
Main Cast: Helen Mirren, Katie Holmes, Jeffrey Tambor, Barry Watson, Marisa Coughlan
Release Year: 1999
Country: US
Run Time: 96 minutes
MPAA Rating: PG13
Plot
After the success of Scream, I Know What You Did Last Summer, and television's Dawson's Creek, screenwriter Kevin Williamson made his directorial debut with this screwball thriller in which an honor roll student and two friends kidnap their witchy teacher. Although her single mom (Lesley Ann Warren), a waitress, struggles to make ends meet, aspiring writer Leigh Ann Watson (Katie Holmes) works hard, avoids sexual temptation, and focuses on her studies. She hopes to make valedictorian and earn a scholarship to college -- and get away from her dead-end hometown. As her senior year draws to a close, however, she's dogged by harsh grades from her vituperative history instructor, Mrs. Tingle (Helen Mirren). On the same day she finds out that she's still in second place behind fellow valedictory candidate Mary Beth Carter (Liz Stauber), Leigh Ann must endure Mrs. Tingle's fierce criticism of the final project into which she's poured her heart. After commiserating with her best friend, aspiring actress Jo Lynn Jordan (Marisa Coughlan), and hunky stoner Luke Churner (Barry Watson), Leigh Ann runs even further afoul of Mrs. Tingle; Luke stashes an advance copy of the teacher's final exam in Leigh Ann's backpack and Tingle discovers it, promising to turn Leigh Ann in for cheating and ruin her chances of a better life. When the three teens turn up at Tingle's house to try to reason with her, Luke and Jo Lynn manage to accidentally kidnap Mrs. Tingle. Soon the three students are keeping their teacher a prisoner, trying to figure out how to blackmail her into silence while maintaining the illusion that nothing strange is going on. Teaching Mrs. Tingle was filmed under the name "Killing Mrs. Tingle," but the title was changed after a rash of real-life high school killing sprees made the headlines. ~ Brian J. Dillard, All Movie Guide
Review
Although its poor box-office performance took the luster off Kevin Williamson's storied career, the big-name screenwriter's directorial debut is actually a highly watchable piece of teen exploitation -- that is, until it runs out of ideas at its climax. Like all Williamson projects, Teaching Mrs. Tingle wears its influences on its sleeve -- plot straight out of Nine to Five, teen dynamics from the John Hughes playbook -- but that doesn't make it any less entertaining. The casting's great, although with the exception of Jeffrey Tambor, the supporting cast gets short shrift in the editing room; Lesley Ann Warren and Vivica A. Fox have almost nothing to do, while Hughes vet Molly Ringwald gets only a few wickedly funny throwaway lines. Still, Katie Holmes and Marisa Coughlan, both participants in Williamson's TV projects, make an appealing combo as the best friends who kidnap their teacher; Holmes gets top billing as the sweet, determined, underprivileged Leigh Ann, while Coughlan gets the best scenes as Jo Lynn, the aspiring actress who does Linda Blair impressions in her spare time. Barry Watson, another TV vet, seems like he wants to play edgy Judd Nelson to Holmes' wholesome Ringwald and Coughlan's oddball Ally Sheedy, but his pretty-boy character's really only there to provoke sexual rivalry. In fact, the potential of sex to destroy people's dreams is the film's major theme, and Helen Mirren does an exquisite job of embodying the curdled expectations of promising youth left to rot in a stew of romantic disillusion. As the titular teacher, Mirren spews venom and pretension like many a real-life victim of Sinclair Lewis' "village virus." She's the bitter person we've all left behind on our way out of nowhere, and it's Williamson's canny exploration of her character that provides the script with its bite. It's too bad, then, that things fall apart at the end, for until its soggy climax, Teaching Mrs. Tingle has laughs and subtext aplenty. ~ Brian J. Dillard, All Movie Guide
David S. Lazan - Art Director, Gina Fortunato - Associate Producer, Julie Plec - Associate Producer, David Diamond - Boom Operator, Lisa Beach - Casting, Pete Anthony - Conductor, Paul Hellerman - Co-producer, Susie de Santo - Costume Designer, Lisa Campbell - First Assistant Director, Nicholas Mastandrea - First Assistant Director, Kevin Williamson - Director, Steve M. Davison - Second Unit Director, Debra Neil-Fisher - Editor, Ted Field - Executive Producer, Michael Finnell - Executive Producer, Scott Kroopf - Executive Producer, Bob Weinstein - Executive Producer, Harvey Weinstein - Executive Producer, Erica Huggins - Executive Producer, Cary Granat - Executive Producer, Daniel Curet - Hair Styles, Mishell Chandler - Hair Styles, Sean Smith - Hair Styles, Andrew Ullman - Location Manager, John Frizzell - Composer (Music Score), Andrew Kinney - Musical Arrangement, Michele Kuznetsky - Musical Direction/Supervision, Mary Ramos - Musical Direction/Supervision, Duncan Sheik - Songwriter, Rea Ann Silva - Makeup, David Boyd - Camera Operator, Richard Merryman - Camera Operator, Brett Peters - Camera Operator, Philip Shanahan - Camera Operator, Naomi Shohan - Production Designer, Jerzy Zielinski - Cinematographer, Cathy Konrad - Producer, Lauren Cory - Set Designer, Daniel May - Set Designer, Scott P. Murphy - Set Designer, Jim Stuebe - Sound/Sound Designer, Howell Gibbens - Sound Editor, Piero Mura - Sound Editor, John Kwiatkowski - Sound Editor, Adam Kopald - Sound Editor, Patrick Romano - Stunts, Eileen Weisinger - Stunts, Cinda-Lin James - Stunts, Tricia Peters - Stunts, Troy Robinson - Stunts, Jared S. Eddo - Stunts, Leigh Hennessy - Stunts, Diana Lupo - Stunts, Christopher J. Tuck - Stunts, Steve M. Davison - Stunts Coordinator, Bob Brown - Stunts Coordinator, Paul Hellerman - Unit Production Manager, Kevin Williamson - Screenwriter, Rick Bota - Second Unit Director Of Photography, Lauren Feige - Production Assistant, Ray Beal - Animal Trainer/Wrangler, Richard Potter - Executive in Charge of Production, Kevin Hyman - Executive in Charge of Production, Michael Singer - Unit Publicist, Brian LeGrady - First Assistant Camera, Voya Mikulic - Gaffer, John "JW" Warner - Grip, Carol Schwartz - Makeup Supervisor, Daniel Gaber - Music Editor, Robert Hackl - Post Production Supervisor, Daniel Arredondo - Post Production Supervisor, Tina Anderson - Production Coordinator, Lori A. Spall - Production Coordinator, John Paul "J.P." Jones - Properties Master, Mel Metcalfe - Re-Recording Mixer, Terry Porter - Re-Recording Mixer, Dean A. Zupancic - Re-Recording Mixer, Ronit Ravich-Boss - Script Supervisor, Rosemary Cremona - Second Assistant Director, Daniel Arredondo - Second Assistant Director, Frank Ceglia - Special Effects Coordinator, Paul H. Haines, Jr. - Special Effects Coordinator, Bill Brummond - Steadicam Operator, Bruce Birmelin - Still Photographer, Todd Toon - Supervising Sound Editor, Albert Gasser - Supervising Sound Editor, Bernice Briggs - Visual Effects Producer, Bob Baron - ADR Mixer, Mark Dobrogowski - Art Department Assistant, Kevin Constant - Assistant Art Director, Steven Cooke - Assistant Chief Lighting Technician, Briana Burke-Ullman - Assistant Location Manager, Rowland Wafford - Assistant Location Manager, John Burton West - Assistant Production Coordinator, Rick Cohen - Assistant Properties, Mark A. Tracy - Assistant Sound Editor, Shannon Hart - Buyer, Douglas S. Johnson - Camera Loader, Craig Kohlkoff - Camera Loader, Sarah Katzman - Casting Associate, Brian Markey - Construction Coordinator, Susan Kistler - Costumes Supervisor, Daniel Pershing - Dolly Grip, Michael C. Price - Dolly Grip, Bruce Sharp - Electrician, Jeffrey Olan - Extra Casting, Brian Bruskrud - First Assistant Accountant, Allen Wong - First Assistant Accountant, Patrick J. Don Vito - First Assistant Editor, Dana B. Wilson - First Assistant Editor, Jane Galli - Key Make-up, William J. Foley - Leadman, Steve Beeson - Production Accountant, Eric P. Steckler - Production Accountant, Bob Warner - Scenic Artist, David S. Clark - Second Assistant Editor, Susan Pickett - Second Second Assistant Director, Gary Thomas - Storyboard Artist, Martin Coblenz - Transportation Captain, Jack R. Campbell - Transportation Captain, Timothy B. Abbatoye - Transportation Coordinator, Jessica Bender - Cable Person, Scott Weber - Foley Mixer, Gregg Barbanell - Foley Walker, Laura Macias - Foley Walker, Theresa Repola Mohammed - Negative Cutter, Sean D. Cussen - Set Medic/First Aid, G.W. Brown - Supervising ADR Editor, Cecele Destefano - Art Department Coordinator
Leigh Ann (Katie Holmes) is a high school student who wants to achieve top grades to become valedictorian. However, her grade in History class is threatened by her sadistic teacher, Mrs. Tingle (Helen Mirren). Mrs. Tingle has a special dislike for Leigh Ann and down-grades Leigh Ann's well-designed project. The teacher also stumbles upon Leigh Ann with the final exam, which had been stolen and planted in Leigh Ann's backpack without her consent, and threatens to have her expelled for it.
Leigh Ann and her two friends, Luke and Jo Lynn, head to Mrs. Tingle's house that night and try to convince the teacher that Leigh Ann is innocent. Mrs. Tingle, however, does not listen. A physical struggle ensues and Mrs. Tingle is accidentally knocked unconscious. The students panic and tie Mrs. Tingle to her bed. Pretending to be Mrs. Tingle, Jo Lynn calls the school the next morning and feigns illness in order to buy themselves some time, but all are unsure of what they should do next. Mrs. Tingle eventually reveals that she hates Leigh Ann because Leigh Ann has the potential to leave their small town and experience life – something Mrs. Tingle never got a chance to do – but her honesty only furthers her captors' dislike of her. She also opines that Leigh Ann does not have the guts to do anything that will get her in trouble; in response, an angry and infuriated Leigh Ann kisses Luke and has sex with him on Mrs Tingle's couch.
The next day at school, Jo Lynn ignores Leigh Ann because she had a crush – a crush Leigh Ann had been aware of. A regretful Leigh Ann tries to make amends with Jo Lynn, but an admission that she'd had sex with Luke further infuriates Jo Lynn.
Leigh Ann, Luke, and Jo Lynn decide to blackmail Mrs. Tingle by producing photographic evidence of her love affair with the school's gym teacher. Before they can enact their plot, however, Mrs. Tingle escapes from her bonds. After a fight at the top of the staircase, she seemingly falls to her death but then quickly recovers, scrambles to her feet, and picks up a crossbow. She fires it wildly, trying to hit Leigh Ann. Trudie Tucker walks through the door, gets hit in the chest by the bolt, and appears to be dead just as the principal of her school arrives to check up on Mrs. Tingle. Leigh Ann forces Mrs. Tingle to tell everything that happened; that she wanted her to fail, that she shot Trudie with the arrow, among other things. However, Trudie was protected by a thick textbook she was holding at her chest and was completely unharmed. Mrs. Tingle is fired, and the final scene of the film shows Leigh Ann being named valedictorian.
Reception
The film received some poor reviews, with Rotten Tomatoes measuring an 20% approval rating. [1]Roger Ebert compared the film to Election in its concept but said that Teaching Mrs. Tingle fell short of Election in wit, and in that Teaching Mrs. Tingle had no sympathethic characters. Ebert complimented Mirren's acting.[2]
