"The Good Student" Review - Written by Anthony Thurber

The Good Student
A.K.A. Mr. Gibbs
Year: 2009
Director: David Ostry
Stars: Tim Daly, Hayden Panettiere, William Sandler
MPAA Rating: R
Studio: Screen Media Film
Running Time: 80 Mins




“The Good Student” is a dark comedy about Mr. Gibb a loser teacher (Tim Daly) who starts to begin obsessed with one of his students (Hayden Panettiere). She’s also a local celebrity. Then, one day a mysterious person kidnaps her. All fingers point to Mr. Gibb, as he becomes the main suspect, in the investigation, as he was the last to see her. Now, he must find he must find the kidnapper himself, as her father is interested in using it to make money off this and a student, who suspects he is the kidnapper. The film also co-stars William Sandler and co-executive produced by Kevin Spacey.

As a reviewer, there are some films that you want to write a good review for, but can't. “The Good Student” is one of those films, as it has some good moments and some bad ones too. The film was at times is a very good mystery/ dark comedy, but what happened with the film was that it got too dark, which some of that might have to do with the eighty minute running time and the fact that the screenplay was short. David Ostry’s director was average, at best. One of the things that make his direction average, the way this movie moves at a slow pace. It really made this film too dark, as I was starting to be bored with this film and the subject matter. Another thing that makes it that way, the fact that a couple of the mistakes that the filmmakers noticeable, like a scene where Tim Daly was talking to another teacher, after that teacher got kicked out of the bar. The scene looked completely black and white. Maybe there was something wrong with the camera, but that’s a very noticeable mistake.

Even though I didn’t like those things, there were things that were good, in his direction. Like, the dark humor that works very well. Ostry does that by making Daly’s performance come off, as someone who you could conceive, as a complete loser. It makes the character and the humor work well. He also gets the performances, from the other actors too, including Hayden Panettiere (who’s in it for maybe twenty or so mintues) and William Sandler (who made his character very unsympathetic). The characters were interesting and made this film from becoming bad.

The screenplay was also the same way. It was one of those screenplays that had a good beginning and nice finish. What was missing in this story, a middle part. The reason for that was, the film’s tone felt like, it was playing one note, until the last twenty-five minutes or so. Also, the story felt so short. This really affected the character development, in the film, as Planettiere’s character in this film, for a fourth of it. You really don’t get to really get to know of her character or interact with most of the characters.

With that said, there were positives, in Adam Targum’s screenplay. He does a good job focusing on his main character, who’s obsessed with the abducted girl. Targum goes into the state of the character’s mind and why he thinks, he wants her. He also goes into the girl’s father’s greed to exploit her kidnapping and the various things he does. The works well, because you really want to hate this character, as he is nothing but a greedy businessman.

“The Good Student” is a film that I wanted to like, but hate giving this film a failing grade, because there are too many things wrong with this film.

Review Rating: 2.5 Stars