Review of Chalk (2001) by Jeff C — 23 Jun 2007

I really enjoyed this movie. That being said, I wish it had more meat on its dramatically-ripe bones. Obviously styled after "The Office", "Chalk" is the tale of a year in the life of 4 public school teachers.

There's the insecure new teacher, overly aggressive and pushy new teacher, arrogant semi-veteran teacher, and ex-teacher now administrator. All four are lots of fun. This movie has a lot of strong point.

The performances are solid. There's some excellent satirical comedy, and the film doesn't cop out. It's a realistic look at how sucky teaching can be, compared to the usual style we get from, say, "Goodbye Mr.

Chips". The kids are frustrating, the colleagues are frustrating, and the whole business of raising the new generation comes across as much more of a mixed bag than we usually see in movies (which is incredibly refreshing).

There are wonderful touches, like measuring time in the proximity to the next break or the spelling bee in which faculty members spell the slang words of their students. I did think that this all could have been taken farther, though.

I felt like so much of this only scratched the surface of what could have been a scathing and brilliant satire, instead of the tasty diversion it is now. Also, there were some cheap genre conventions counter to the mockumentary style that didn't jive for me.

Most notably, there was a dream sequence revealing the romantic longings of one of the characters. Not only was this clashing with the films dramatic conceits, that plot line is barely explored (and it was a poor match to begin with).

All in all, "Chalk" is definitely worth viewing. I just wish it had been left in the oven a little longer.