If there is anything worse than an unfunny comedy, it's an unfunny comedy that leaves you feeling uncomfortable at the same time.
Mr. Woodcock is such a gross miscalculation, I often found myself wondering what the filmmakers were thinking at the time. This is an uninspired, mean-spirited film that makes us cringe when it arrives at its happy ending, because the movie and the characters that inhabit it don't deserve it. How bad is
Mr. Woodcock? I watched this movie immediately after seeing
Dragon Wars, and found myself thinking back on the earlier film in a slightly positive light. At least that movie was an interesting train wreck to watch.
Author and self-help guru, John Farley (Seann William Scott), has spent the past few years putting aside his traumatic childhood when he was an overweight kid in a small town being physically and verbally abused by his sadistic gym class teacher, Mr. Woodcock (Billy Bob Thornton). His new book on letting go of the past has become a national best seller, and because of this, he's been invited to return to his hometown to accept an honorary award for making a difference in the world. John returns home, despite the objections of his high strung alcoholic book tour manager (Amy Poehler), and when he is reunited with his mother (Susan Sarandon), she has a surprise for him. She's dating a new guy, and that guy turns out to be Mr. Woodcock. Mom insists that he's a sweet guy at heart, but John is not fooled, and knows that the guy is still making life miserable for children. Things get even worse when Woodcock proposes marriage, so John becomes determined to reveal the guy's true evil nature, and teams up with a fellow former student (Ethan Suplee) who also has a grudge against Woodcock to uncover whatever dirty secrets they can find.
I have often stated that any movie idea can work with the right approach, and
Mr. Woodcock is no exception. There is a glimmer of opportunity in the film's premise. After all, who hasn't had a gym teacher (or any teacher, for that matter) who seemed to be out to get them? If you can honestly say you never had one, you're probably looking at the past through rose-colored glasses, or got hit in the head by one too many dodgeballs in class. The movie wastes every opportunity the premise gives it by playing the situations up so broadly and making the characters act so bizarre, they seem like they're from Planet X. John's mother comes across as completely insensitive, as she does not even once bring up her son's painful past with her future husband. You'd think she would remember the teacher that caused her son so much emotional trauma, he devoted his adult life to getting over it. But, she often acts completely clueless, and doesn't even seem to notice John's discomfort around him. She's not the only one, as everyone in town seems to be completely oblivious to the man's cruelty, and are even honoring him as "Educator of the Year", which is a lapse of logic that the film never overcomes. Then again, John never says anything either. This is an Idiot Plot movie where all the problems of the main character could be solved if he just said a couple words. Of course, the movie would be over a lot quicker this way, so John is forced to act like a complete moron as he races around town, trying to find dirty laundry on his mother's future husband, and getting into bizarre situations such as when he finds himself hiding under the very bed that Woodcock is using to have sex.
The central problem with the film is the fact that it is all concept and no execution. Watching the film, I got the sense that when this movie was pitched to the studio, they immediately thought of Billy Bob Thornton playing a sadistic gym teacher, and then pretty much stopped right there. It expects us to be amused with the very basics. Thornton does make a great, imposing bully, but the movie forgets to give him anything funny to do. Watching him verbally abuse people and physically abuse children is not amusing. It's not just Thornton's character either. There are many moments where the movie seems to be setting up a gag, but then does nothing with it. In one scene, John dips Woodcock's gym class whistle in a urine-soaked toilet. A couple minutes later, Woodcock uses the whistle, but nothing happens. There's no reaction from John, and there's absolutely nothing from Woodcock himself. The writers couldn't even be bothered to give us a payoff of any kind. I'm probably better off not seeing the payoff to that particular gag, but it at least would have been something. This happens a lot in this movie, unfortunately. We constantly see potential, but all we get is the set up. It gets even worse when the film's tone turns somewhat dramatic during its final moments, and asks us to genuinely care about these people. If
Mr. Woodcock proves anything, it proves that it's impossible to care about characters who come across as oblivious, mean-spirited oddballs for 90% of the running time.
It's amazing that such a shallow, forgettable film has rounded up some genuine talent in its cast. What's even more amazing is that they actually seem to be trying, which means they somehow believed in this material. During the few scenes that they are required to act like human beings, Seann William Scott and Susan Sarandon have an almost sweet mother-son relationship. It's too bad that she's forced to act like an insensitive moron most of the time, and he's forced to act like a buffoon. Billy Bob Thornton has played this kind of gruff character in many other comedies, and could probably do this role in his sleep. While he never gets to break out and do anything memorable, I have to admit, he's believable as a menacing gym teacher from Hell. The only problem is he's not believable as a likable guy underneath his rough exterior, and when the movie tries to convince us of this, it falls completely on its face. The supporting cast come and go as the movie sees fit, and often seem to have no place in the story itself. There's a subplot concerning John possibly hooking up with a girl from school that he's always had a crush on, and is now working as a teacher. This is never resolved, and the movie seems to simply forget she was even there in the first place.
Mr. Woodcock is a movie that never goes far enough. It's not satirical enough, it's not smart enough, and it doesn't even seem to be confident enough to be funny. It just kind of sits there and dies right up there on the screen, as if it just doesn't care. The film has gone through numerous reshoots in the past two years, and has been moved around to different release dates in a futile attempt to save a doomed project. If the version I saw is the one the studio was happiest with, then I'd hate to see what this movie was originally like. Watching
Mr. Woodcock, you get the sense that everyone involved put a lot of energy into a project that didn't deserve it in the first place.
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If there is anything worse than an unfunny comedy, it's an unfunny comedy that leaves you feeling uncomfortable at the same time. Mr. Woodcock is such a gross miscalculation, I often found myself wondering what the filmmakers were thinking at the time. This is an uninspired, mean-spirited film that makes us cringe when it arrives at its happy ending, because the movie and the characters that inhabit it don't deserve it. How bad is Mr. Woodcock? I watched this movie immediately after seeing Dragon Wars, and found myself thinking back on the earlier film in a slightly positive light. At least that movie was an interesting train wreck to watch.
Author and self-help guru, John Farley (Seann William Scott), has spent the past few years putting aside his traumatic childhood when he was an overweight kid in a small town being physically and verbally abused by his sadistic gym class teacher, Mr. Woodcock (Billy Bob Thornton). His new book on letting go of the past has become a national best seller, and because of this, he's been invited to return to his hometown to accept an honorary award for making a difference in the world. John returns home, despite the objections of his high strung alcoholic book tour manager (Amy Poehler), and when he is reunited with his mother (Susan Sarandon), she has a surprise for him. She's dating a new guy, and that guy turns out to be Mr. Woodcock. Mom insists that he's a sweet guy at heart, but John is not fooled, and knows that the guy is still making life miserable for children. Things get even worse when Woodcock proposes marriage, so John becomes determined to reveal the guy's true evil nature, and teams up with a fellow former student (Ethan Suplee) who also has a grudge against Woodcock to uncover whatever dirty secrets they can find.
I have often stated that any movie idea can work with the right approach, and Mr. Woodcock is no exception. There is a glimmer of opportunity in the film's premise. After all, who hasn't had a gym teacher (or any teacher, for that matter) who seemed to be out to get them? If you can honestly say you never had one, you're probably looking at the past through rose-colored glasses, or got hit in the head by one too many dodgeballs in class. The movie wastes every opportunity the premise gives it by playing the situations up so broadly and making the characters act so bizarre, they seem like they're from Planet X. John's mother comes across as completely insensitive, as she does not even once bring up her son's painful past with her future husband. You'd think she would remember the teacher that caused her son so much emotional trauma, he devoted his adult life to getting over it. But, she often acts completely clueless, and doesn't even seem to notice John's discomfort around him. She's not the only one, as everyone in town seems to be completely oblivious to the man's cruelty, and are even honoring him as "Educator of the Year", which is a lapse of logic that the film never overcomes. Then again, John never says anything either. This is an Idiot Plot movie where all the problems of the main character could be solved if he just said a couple words. Of course, the movie would be over a lot quicker this way, so John is forced to act like a complete moron as he races around town, trying to find dirty laundry on his mother's future husband, and getting into bizarre situations such as when he finds himself hiding under the very bed that Woodcock is using to have sex.
The central problem with the film is the fact that it is all concept and no execution. Watching the film, I got the sense that when this movie was pitched to the studio, they immediately thought of Billy Bob Thornton playing a sadistic gym teacher, and then pretty much stopped right there. It expects us to be amused with the very basics. Thornton does make a great, imposing bully, but the movie forgets to give him anything funny to do. Watching him verbally abuse people and physically abuse children is not amusing. It's not just Thornton's character either. There are many moments where the movie seems to be setting up a gag, but then does nothing with it. In one scene, John dips Woodcock's gym class whistle in a urine-soaked toilet. A couple minutes later, Woodcock uses the whistle, but nothing happens. There's no reaction from John, and there's absolutely nothing from Woodcock himself. The writers couldn't even be bothered to give us a payoff of any kind. I'm probably better off not seeing the payoff to that particular gag, but it at least would have been something. This happens a lot in this movie, unfortunately. We constantly see potential, but all we get is the set up. It gets even worse when the film's tone turns somewhat dramatic during its final moments, and asks us to genuinely care about these people. If Mr. Woodcock proves anything, it proves that it's impossible to care about characters who come across as oblivious, mean-spirited oddballs for 90% of the running time.
It's amazing that such a shallow, forgettable film has rounded up some genuine talent in its cast. What's even more amazing is that they actually seem to be trying, which means they somehow believed in this material. During the few scenes that they are required to act like human beings, Seann William Scott and Susan Sarandon have an almost sweet mother-son relationship. It's too bad that she's forced to act like an insensitive moron most of the time, and he's forced to act like a buffoon. Billy Bob Thornton has played this kind of gruff character in many other comedies, and could probably do this role in his sleep. While he never gets to break out and do anything memorable, I have to admit, he's believable as a menacing gym teacher from Hell. The only problem is he's not believable as a likable guy underneath his rough exterior, and when the movie tries to convince us of this, it falls completely on its face. The supporting cast come and go as the movie sees fit, and often seem to have no place in the story itself. There's a subplot concerning John possibly hooking up with a girl from school that he's always had a crush on, and is now working as a teacher. This is never resolved, and the movie seems to simply forget she was even there in the first place.
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