Review of Teaching Mrs. Tingle (1999) by Andrew D — 08 Jan 2013

I was drawn to the film Teaching Mrs. Tingle for one main reason. It was the directorial debut of famed 90s screenwriter Kevin Williamson who is known for writing the scripts for the first two Scream movies (as well as the fourth), I Know What You Did Last Summer, and the severely underrated sci-fi film The Faculty.

In Teaching Mrs. Tingle, Williamson tells a tale of a girl named Leigh-Ann who tries her hardest to become the valedictorian of her graduating class in order to gain a scholarship and go to college. However, there's one thing standing in her way.

Her History teacher Mrs. Tingle hates her guts. After Leigh-Ann gets in a misunderstanding with Mrs. Tingle about whether she was cheating or not, her and her two friends (Luke and Jo) try to convince her that it was a mistake.

One thing leads to another and they're holding her captive until they can get her to relieve Leigh-Ann of the wild allogations. This plot may seem cool for anyone who's had a crummy teacher in their years in high school, but this film is executed pretty badly.

For one thing, Williamson is best known for his meta-scripts that pay homage to the genre of the film that he's writing for (i.e. He references horror films and horror rules in Scream). Since this film is more of a dramedy, he can't really do anything of that nature.

Sure, he throws in a few references to films like The Exorcist, but they just don't work. Also not working for the script is that it doesn't know what film it wants to be. At first it starts out like Dawson's Creek with teenage drama and angst, but later goes into a comedic territory.

Plus, it sometimes hits a wanna-be thriller genre. If I had to say anything good about this film, it would be for Helen Mirren for her excellent portrayal of Mrs. Tingle. She's able to make the character an unbelievable bitch and she's fun to watch everytime she opens her mouth.

Other than that, Teaching Mrs. Tingle is just a failed attempt by a great screenwriter. Hopefully, he'll stick to making meta-scripts next time since that's what he's really talented at.