This is a very significant movie for me. Wanna know why? "Teaching Mrs. Tingle" is the first movie I ever snuck in to see. There it is, folks, I said it. I have a really good excuse, though! I showed up to see "Mickey Blue Eyes" early, so I watched a few minutes of "Teaching Mrs. Tingle" to pass the time, and surprisingly, I was kinda liking it. So after I saw "Mickey Blue Eyes," I walked in to see "Teaching Mrs. Tingle" which had just begun. Perfect timing. I know, I know... I'm a common criminal now. Oh well.
The reason I didn't really wanna see this movie is because it's written and directed by Kevin Williamson (he wrote "Scream," "Scream 2," "I Know What You Did Last Summer," and he created that terrible TV show, "Dawson's Creek"). I kinda think he's overrated, and he pretty much writes the exact same characters in every movie. The character I hate the most is the good-looking, ultra-cool, delinquent rebel guy. Ugh. I HATE that kinda guy in real life, but Kevin Williamson writes that type of character in every movie, and we're supposed to like him. Ugh. Still, he HAS surprised me. I was mildly amused by the first "Scream," and I liked "Scream 2"... and "The Faculty," another movie he wrote, was a movie I really enjoyed. As for this movie, it's typical Kevin Williamson, but I liked it.
The cast was pretty cool. Katie Holmes was good, Barry Watson was okay I guess (he was the cool delinquent, so my hatred of the character distracted me from what I thought of the actual performance), and I really liked Marisa Coughlan as the actress wanna-be friend. Her performance was challenging, and there were a few scenes that musta been incredibly tough to pull off, but she did it, and she did it well. Then there's Helen Mirren as "Mrs. Tingle." She's awesome. A true actress from the old school, and she's absolutely brilliant.
I was surprised
that I liked this movie. Don't get me wrong, it had plenty of flaws, and
most of it was the Kevin Williamson-isms, but I wasn't bored for a second.
I DO think that he's a good writer, but he seems to be stuck writing in
a very particular way, and once he gets outta that, I think he'll be great.
Until then, I'll continue to bitch about his movies, see them anyway, and
then tell you how I was surprised that I liked it.