A primary school boy has a crush on his teacher. This starts out like many a crush, but soon escalates into something more deadly...
This film works well when the boy and the teacher dominate the first two-thirds. The scenes are naturalistic and endearing. A precocious turn by Oran Creagh as the besotted but unnervingly mature Ardal Travis keeps us hooked. Olga Wehrly as the put-upon teacher is full of liberal good intentions while simultaneously not quite grasping the full import of what is going on right in front of her eyes.
Unfortunately, the film starts to unravel when The Boyfriend (Rory Keenan hamming it up) appears. What has been sweet and episodic till this point becomes forced and caricatured. The Boyfriend is just too much of a pantomime villain. Had he been more well-drawn, the audience would be asking, "Will the teacher realise he is no good for her?" It would then be down to the boy to bring that about. As it is, he is so in-your-face loutish that the audience instead asks, "What is WRONG with this woman that she cannot see what a dick-head this guy is!?"
And he is a dick-head. The boy says so. Which brings me to my other problem with this film, the jarring switch in tone in the last third. Till that point, I was thinking this was something I could show to my primary-school age kids. Then someone decides it is funny to have a kid use naughty words (always a sign of juvenile filmmakers). After that, it descends into amateurish self-indulgence. The gunshot/ball roll is weak. Having the teacher use the word 'kiddie fiddler' is just crass and totally out of tune with the tone of the first two thirds.
A shame really, because the film builds so well and unearths real talent in the boy. Maybe they thought they had to be 'edgy' with their ending, but it comes off as a lack of confidence and control in the filmmakers. All in all, a missed opportunity.
This film works well when the boy and the teacher dominate the first two-thirds. The scenes are naturalistic and endearing. A precocious turn by Oran Creagh as the besotted but unnervingly mature Ardal Travis keeps us hooked. Olga Wehrly as the put-upon teacher is full of liberal good intentions while simultaneously not quite grasping the full import of what is going on right in front of her eyes.
Unfortunately, the film starts to unravel when The Boyfriend (Rory Keenan hamming it up) appears. What has been sweet and episodic till this point becomes forced and caricatured. The Boyfriend is just too much of a pantomime villain. Had he been more well-drawn, the audience would be asking, "Will the teacher realise he is no good for her?" It would then be down to the boy to bring that about. As it is, he is so in-your-face loutish that the audience instead asks, "What is WRONG with this woman that she cannot see what a dick-head this guy is!?"
And he is a dick-head. The boy says so. Which brings me to my other problem with this film, the jarring switch in tone in the last third. Till that point, I was thinking this was something I could show to my primary-school age kids. Then someone decides it is funny to have a kid use naughty words (always a sign of juvenile filmmakers). After that, it descends into amateurish self-indulgence. The gunshot/ball roll is weak. Having the teacher use the word 'kiddie fiddler' is just crass and totally out of tune with the tone of the first two thirds.
A shame really, because the film builds so well and unearths real talent in the boy. Maybe they thought they had to be 'edgy' with their ending, but it comes off as a lack of confidence and control in the filmmakers. All in all, a missed opportunity.