Julianne Moore is The English Teacher. That she is 40-something and unmarried seems to be a major plot point, one that made me immediately vomit into my mouth. Apparently because her standards are too high, a prim, stick-up-her-ass voice-over lady informs us. And indeed we witness several of Ms. Linda Sinclair’s dates, during which she mentally marks them up with red pen and assigns them grades – mostly failing. She is much more comfortable in front of a classroom of teenagers, discussing the authors, stories and characters who never disappoint her.
But then an older student returns, having failed to make a living writing plays in New York City. Linda adores his play of course, loves it so much she steps out of her comfort 
zone to help mount it at her school, with the help of drama teacher extraordinaire, Mr. Kapinas (Nathan Lane). Things do not exactly go smoothly. The play is costly; Mr. Kapinas is demanding; the leading lady (Lily Collins) is a temperamental trouble-maker; the school board objects to the violence. All the while Linda keeps clashing with Jason’s dad (Greg Kinnear), believing that the play’s dark themes have been inspired by their real life.
The thing is, Julianne Moore is great, but the movie that surrounds her is not. It’s kind of a mess. The movie begins and ends with the prissy narration, but forgets it entirely otherwise. These little gimmicks only detract from a movie that’s already a bit hard to follow. It’s a modest movie about a playwright being forced to insert a happy ending into his work – which then forces a happy ending on itself, which feels completely improbable and doesn’t fit with the underlying sadness of the film’s tone. I didn’t hate this film but I cannot figure out the point of it. Only because I was hot for teacher will I generously give this a grade of C-.
ASSHOLES WATCHING MOVIES 
I thought she turned 57 this year?
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Yup, but that’s not stopping her from being cast as a decade younger.
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Um. Nope. Cheers Jay x
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Jay, you have 10 stars for this!
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Too bad it didn’t work… Julianne Moore seems more at home in bittersweet or tragic roles anyway.
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I was really getting into this story. I love the wat you describe it. Too bad the movie didn’t translate as well. it sounded cute😊
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Give it a try. It’s not the best execution but you might still enjoy it.
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The cheetah and I watched this as well and also agree that this was a very uneven movie.
The cast is great on paper but that script just sort of gets lost in space….
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Having met many English teachers, I think I’d find this movie insulting.
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Mnah. I don’t think I’ll bother with this one… even before reading your last paragraph there, I thought it sounded a bit uninspiring.
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Jay,
I’d pay to see a dog-food commercial that featured Julianne Moore.
RR
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Having been an English teacher for almost 25 years, I think I’ll avoid this like the plague. Great review though:-)
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I think I’ll watch this for Julianne Moore. She never disappoints.
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Nice article.
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