The Good Student (2006)

This black comedy, kind of in the spirit of "Election", was only released on DVD several years after it was made and under the misleading title "The Good Student". It's a rare movie that instead of having a traditional hero, has more of a flawed "anti-hero", an unpopular high-school teacher (Tim Daly), who is as absorbed in his rather boring subject (US history) as any high-school teacher, but also harbors a not-so-hidden crush on one of his female students (Hayden Pantierre--I suppose it's kind of hard to blame him there though). After he gives her an ill-advised ride home and ends up kissing her, she mysteriously disappears, and he finds himself the prime suspect.The movie stacks the deck here quite a bit by casting the good-looking and fairly young Daly in the role and also giving him a very attractive love interest more his own age (Paula Devocq). It would have been a lot more brave to cast a guy who LOOKS like a lecherous middle-age creep. He's also seems relatively noble compared to all the other characters in the movie--like the missing girls' father (William Sandler), a car salesman who seems to be using his daughter's disappearance to bolster his business, a cop (Dan Hedaya), who is both overzealous and incompetent, and another female student (Sarah Steele), who mocks "Mr. Gibbs" for his attraction to the missing girl and his interest in "barely-legal" porn, but who turns out to have her own "Lolita" thing going on. The worst perhaps though is a sleazy fellow teacher who confides that he is exchanging grades for sex with his female students.This movie perpetuates the rather tiresome Hollywood myth that very many high-school teachers are, or would even want to, mess around with their students. Of course, not too many high-school students look like Pantierre, or even Steele. (Interestingly, Hayden Pantierre WAS high-school age when she made this movie, but she definitely doesn't look it. Steele, on the other hand, had played one of the more believable teen characters a few years earlier in "Spanglish" when she was in her "awkward years", but those years were obviously well behind her by this time). Like "Election", this movie does have some effective black comedy and satire, but it is a much more hit-and-miss affair. The movie also has a really great ending, but perhaps it is a little too subtle or ambiguous for many people to appreciate. All in all, this isn't a bad movie though.

The Good Student is a dark comedy drama starring Tim Daly and Hayden Panettiere.The story is about a high school teacher,who turns his life around after a student gets kidnapped.It was directed by David Ostry.An unpopular high school teacher finds himself the primary suspect in the case of a missing student when news gets out that he was the last person to see her.Mr. Gibb is reviled among the student body as quite possibly the worst teacher ever to stand at the head of the class. He's infatuated with Ally, a popular teen and local celebrity. When Ally suddenly goes missing, the entire suburban town descends into panic. Could Mr. Gibb have something to do with her disappearance? When a police investigation reveals that Mr. Gibb gave Ally a ride home mere moments before she vanished without a trace, the teacher who was universally despised discovers that his troubles have only just begun.The could have been interesting but unfortunately,it leaves the viewer wanting for more.The drama was not interesting and the comedy falls flat.Also,the characters in the film are hardly understood especially Mr.Gibb's fascination towards Ally.Why?Just because she is good looking doesn't explain everything.The only thing going for it is the presence of Hayden Panettiere,who is very pretty; and it will keep you guessing until the very end.

I watched this movie on t.v. and I really liked it, so much as to try to find a website where I could rewatch it for free. I like Hayden Panettiere and thought she acted well in this movie. The movie surprised me twice. Once when Ally seemed friendly to her teacher and not creeped out by him, and again when he held her hostage but didn't do anything, then talked back to Ally's dad. I think it's kind of a weird and unusual movie, and those are exactly the kind of movies that I like. They aren't the same layout as other "cookiecutter" films. I tend to gravitate towards movies that contain certain characters, and Ally and her teacher were two of those types of characters (cool teenage girl) (odd eccentric guy) that I like to see in movies. I think The Good Student is a movie that can answer someone's "what ifs" about what if a teacher held one of their students hostage, but he decided to be nice and not hurt her and let her go?

It wasn't awful, but this movie is pretty forgettable. With only a couple of exceptions, the characters came off as two dimensional, their actions made no sense and seemed totally unrealistic. The actors did a passable job with what they had. The dialogue had a few chuckles but largely felt short of witty, and it couldn't seem to commit to comedy and instead comes off as a not so compelling drama with a few comic moments. I will say the end was unexpected to me, but it didn't really make up for the flaws.Of course, Hayden Panettierre is really hot, and if you enjoy looking at her this movie is probably worth seeing just for that.