John Tucker Must Die

Don't let the very misleading title fool you. John Tucker Must Die is a harmless, mostly inoffensive piece of teenage fluff that I'm sure its target audience will love. As for me, I found to be mostly unmemorable, but at least watchable. Director Betty Thomas (Private Parts, 1998's Doctor Dolittle) has created a perfectly standard teen comedy that does little to annoy, and even less to inspire. The film is watchable and has some good performances, but with such a strong and attention-grabbing title, everyone involved should have put forth a little extra effort to make John Tucker live up to its name.

Shy high school student Kate (Brittany Snow) is new to town, and while working at her restaurant job waiting tables, witnesses first hand that the most popular guy in school, John Tucker (Jesse Metcalf from TV's Desperate Housewives), is dating three girls at the same time. These girls include head cheerleader Heather (recording artist Ashanti), animal rights activist Beth (Sophia Bush), and technical savvy Carrie (Arielle Kebbel). All three think that John only has eyes for them, and when Kate tells them otherwise, the girls team up to plot and bring down John's high status. When some elaborate humiliation schemes don't seem to work, the girls fall back on a plan to make Kate appear to be the popular new cheerleader in school, which will instantly draw John's attention. The plan is for Kate to ultimately break his heart, so that he will understand how his former girlfriends feel. But when John Tucker starts to show genuine feelings for Kate and reveal a softer side that no one knew he had, Kate starts to have second thoughts about the deception, and begins to question the kind of person she is becoming.

With a light and breezy tone that should go over easy with just about any audience member, John Tucker Must Die is a mildly amusing picture set in that oh so popular alternate world that the movies love to show us. It's a world where every high school student looks like a 25-year-old supermodel or pop star, the "ugly" girl isn't that ugly to start with, and no one has an ounce of body fat, except for the prerequisite fat guy. (In this case, John Tucker's best friend.) Despite the hard to swallow fantasy of the film's settings, the screenplay by Jeff Lowell does manage to bring out some mild laughs out of the increasingly elaborate efforts of the girls to humiliate their male enemy. Sure, some of their attempts are a bit out there (Would any movie theater really run an ad set up by the girls that announces to the entire audience that John Tucker has herpes during the pre-show advertising reel?), but most of them are still clever and fun. The film also has a good heart at its core, especially the scenes concerning Kate and her young mother (played by comic actress Jenny McCarthy in a rare straight role), who has had her share of bad relationships in the past. The scenes between the two are generally played honestly, and deal with the fact that Kate feels she's never had a stable family life, since her mother has dated so many men one after another. It's nothing deep or involving, but it delivers some good performances from both of the actresses, and gives the film a sense of truth amongst the silliness of the main plot.

Where the film starts to lose its footing is that it does very little to make us care about the characters outside of Kate. The three girls who initiate the plan and drag her into it are all but interchangeable, and don't go much deeper than their stereotyped personalities. If more effort was made to humanize these girls that John Tucker has used and thrown away, we could have been more sympathetic to the girls' plight. Instead, they exist solely to set up some comedic set pieces to humiliate John, and "coach" Kate in the ways of being popular like them. We also get to see very little of the characters' lives outside of the school, and outside of their plotting sessions. While I hardly expect realism when watching a Hollywood teen comedy, these people seem to do nothing but hang out in the halls and play basketball all day, with the occasional chem lab now and then. It also would have been nice if the movie offered a more level-headed point of view of the situation, outside of the scorned women. The movie hints at this with the introduction of Tucker's more mellow and less popular brother (Penn Badgley), but he seems to disappear for most of the film, popping up only to dispense some warnings to Kate about the troubles her deceptive actions toward his brother will bring. With some more honest characters, this movie could have maybe risen above the usual standards of the genre. As it is, the film will merely have to settle for being slightly above average.

Thankfully, John Tucker Must Die is assisted by a generally strong cast led by the talented young Brittany Snow. A relative newcomer to feature films, Snow has real screen presence, a likeable personality, and is beautiful without being overly attractive or made up like some other young actresses. As long as she can find some better work, and avoids some of the pitfalls that have plagued her peers, I expect good things from her, and look forward to seeing her grow as an actress. Equally strong is Jesse Metcalf as the title character himself. He is able to lay on the smarmy charm that every ladies man holds, but is also able to make us believe that he is generally interested in Kate as their relationship grows and his softer side begins to show. As the three women who were once part of John's life, Ashanti, Sophia Bush and Arielle Kebbel are good enough in their respective roles, even if the characters themselves are not as well developed as they should be. The real surprise in the cast, however, comes from Jenny McCarthy. I have never been a fan of McCarthy even back on her MTV days back in the 90s, but she is surprisingly likeable in her role, and shows she can actually act when called for. The only hurdle you have to get over is to accept the fact that the 33-year-old McCarthy is the mother of the 20-year-old Snow. It may not be entirely believable, but at least the two women have good chemistry together.

While John Tucker may not exactly bring anything new to audiences, what it does offer it does well enough to make me not regret having to watch it. It's certainly better than the last high school comedy we got, the uninspired gender-switching comedy, She's the Man. You just get the sense that the movie could have been so much more while watching it. It's competently made, there are some all around good performances, and there are even a couple scenes where I found myself laughing. All it needed was a little something more to push it to a higher level. I may have not been entirely impressed, but I'm sure the young girl audience the film strives for will find much to like. If you are of this age group and gender, consider this review a recommendation. Everyone else can probably find something better to do with their time.

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