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Movie review: Mr. Woodcock
BY MAGGIE SCOTT
While the other teachers are there to fill the empty space between their students’ ears, Forest Meadow Middle School’s P.E. teacher is working on what he sees as the absence of a spine in each of the pasty-faced, pre-pubescent pupils lined up, warily waiting for their coach to give them the business.
Billy Bob Thornton takes deadpan malevolence to Shakespearean heights as the title character in “Mr. Woodcock,” an outrageously funny revision of all those films about beloved teachers who made an indelible impression on their students. Jasper Woodcock is a Mr. Chips of an entirely different stripe.
If Sidney Poitier’s teacher is the kind who inspires the tribute song, “To Sir, With Love,” Thornton’s teacher is the kind who inspires a book called, “Letting Go: How to Get Past Your Past,” written by John Farley (Seann William Scott), 13 years after he was the “round sack of air” Woodcock picked on in boys gym class.
Although Farley appears to have healed enough to channel his antipathy for Woodcock into the desire to help others work through their emotional blocks, it soon becomes clear on his return to Forest Meadow to receive the Corn Cob Key at the town’s annual Cornival that it won’t take much to open old wounds.
Like the news from his glowing mother Beverly (Susan Sarandon) that she is dating the “sweet, considerate” Mr. Woodcock. Faced with this perverse and inconceivable situation, John’s past comes rushing back; and it’s as if Woodcock had just “taken down” (to the wrestling mat) the “porker” (John) one more humiliating time.
Mom isn’t the only one in town who’s felt something good about Woodcock. He’s on the same bill with John at Cornival to receive the Educator of the Year award, and there will be plenty of testimonials (some a little suspect) to support the dubious honor.
As far as John’s concerned, the whole town has been hoodwinked; and he’s going to prove that Woodcock’s no good, if he has to dig up dirt about the teacher’s other marriage, prove Woodcock is cheating on Beverly or just show him up at Cornival challenging him to a corn on the cob eating contest. No matter what Mom says about being happy and how she wants her “boys” to get along, John’s stake in this rivalry is too big.
John thinks he’s working on that backbone Woodcock would have sworn he didn’t possess. But, maybe beating Woodcock at his own game isn’t worth the price if John loses the respect of the person who really had the biggest influence on his life…his former Corn Cob Queen mother.
Besides the hilarious mistreatment of the kids, Seann William Scott’s mugging in stymied desperation as the perfect foil for Thornton’s impervious mask really sells this oddball comedy. A New Line release, rated PG-13 for crude and sexual content; thematic material; language and mild drug reference.
