Review of The Good Student (2006) by Courtland B — 16 Nov 2009

The Good student was a movie that came out of nowhere and it was very interesting, the casting was its biggest appeal but its plot was very interesting too and the most interesting part is that its not as tame and the title would suggest...but then again the cover suggests its real tone.

The story is of a History Teacher named Ronald Gibb (Daly) and his best student is Allyson Palmer (Hayden Panettiere) well not only is she his best student but his most attractive one which he seems to notice constantly....this made awkward when another female student finds out.

Eventually the film kicks its main plot in which surprised the hell out of me, Allyson gets kidnapped after getting a ride home from Mr.Gibb....so hes the main suspect and now hes made it his mission to find her because her dad is too busy using her being kidnapped to sell cars.

All in all the performances were great, definitely a low-key production value but as low key goes it was great.

And the casting was great too, its impressive how they got such high profile actor's and actresses to be in this...Dan Hedaya being the one with the smallest role but really a nice one because its almost like just being in the backround makes a scene thats already pretty good that much better, he along with Tim Daly really Ground this film.

I do feel Hayden Panettiere got a little bit of a short straw on this though...she did great but she has better acting Chops then this film let show, they treated her more as just a body which I will say shes very beautiful but she still deserves better.

And finally I will say.....I Absolutely hated the Ending, I felt it did not fit and it almost ruined the entire thing for me....seriously it was the most Schizophrenic twist i've ever seen, it puts M. night Shyamalan's Plot twists to bed...it gave literally no clues and kept us in the dark the whole time and that would've been fine if it hadnt built itself up for something that makes its ending completely illogical.