The English Teacher

R

Released May 17, 2013

1 hr. 31 min.

Comedy

Drama

List

43%

35 Reviews

Tomatometer

31%

2,500+ Ratings

Audience Score

The life of a popular teacher (Julianne Moore) turns topsy-turvy when a former star pupil returns home after a failed career as a playwright. Unwilling to see the young man give up his dream, she decides to produce his play at her high school.

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StephenPaul C

LOL, the funniest 01 hour: and 31 minutes ever!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Rated R for Sexual Content, and Language!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Starring Nathan Lane as Carl!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

07/15/23

Full Review

John H

Twenty years in HS classrooms. Often English (I'm a sub). Tried-to-be playwright and short story writer. Still at it. This is not an Oscar winner. Never intended to be. Light, borderline superficial. Cute entanglements. Nicely directed, edited, etc. This is entertainment. And it works. Impossible to dislike anyone in it. Agreeable flow. Best . . . it keeps you smiling. Why else do you watch a comedy? The story line was designed to be light-weight from the beginning. Why else the English-speaking background...telling you what you already know? It's there to keep the smile on your face, dummy. Remember this as you watch it. The thing worked. Give it the credit it was designed to win. Watch the movie. If not, you're a rascal. You'll see. Listen carefully at forty minutes in. I liked it. For me, 3½.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

03/13/22

Full Review

ronald h

"Academic politics are so vicious precisely because the stakes are so small."' That quote, variously worded, has been attributed to Lawrence J. Peter and others. This film is not really about academic competition, but it is about conflict in academia, and the stakes are indeed small: The whole controversy revolves around a high school play written by a former student. An English teacher (Julianne Moore) gets entangled in the administrative constraints of her school. Without spoiling anything, suffice it so say that she makes an egregious mistake. It's a lightweight comedy, abundant with literary references to please the academics in the audience. But it's pretty funny in spots, especially a laugh-out-loud hospital room scene with Moore and Greg Kinnear. I've never thought highly of Moore, maybe because she's been in so many dumb movies, but here, she shows admirable comedic chops. Kinnear also demonstrates that he can really act when given a role he can actually sink his teeth into. Trivial but amusing, hilarious in places, The English Teacher is worth a watch.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

03/30/23

Full Review

Audience Member

A great cast but not at all what I was expecting, in the worst possible way. Even Greg Kinnear, whom I love, couldn't save this one. I also really like Nathan Lane but clearly the role wasn't for him. Julianne Moore's character was just naive and stupid, nearly forcing a former student to allow the school to perform his play. It's one thing to be encouraging but quite another to be borderline obsessive. And of course her relationship with this student was a huge turn off. I watched about a half hour before I decided that I'd had enough. The previews failed to show just how bad this movie really is. No wonder I'd never heard of it.

Rated 1 out of 5 stars

02/01/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Not a terrible movie, but innecessary. Lends nothing new to the frumpy old Eng teacher who goes bad, but we all learn something in the end. A real snooze fest

Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars

02/03/23

Full Review

Audience Member

You can let this one go. 100% fluff. Glasses and a beige sweater are not going to convince me that Julianne Moore is a frumpy, spinster English teacher. The only redeeming part of this movie is watching Greg Kinnear act, unlike Lane and Moore's melodramatics.

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

02/21/23

Full Review

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Craig Zisk

Director

Julianne Moore

Linda Sinclair

Michael Angarano

Jason Sherwood

Greg Kinnear

Dr. Tom Sherwood

Lily Collins

halle Anderson

Nathan Lane

Carl Kapinas

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Adam Nayman

Globe and Mail

A potentially incisive character study is buried under layers of fluff in The English Teacher.

Rated: 2/4

May 31, 2013

Full Review

Rene Rodriguez

Miami Herald

Apropos of its title, The English Teacher feels like a movie written as a homework assignment.

Rated: 2/4

May 30, 2013

Full Review

Linda Barnard

Toronto Star

The report card for low-key high school comedy The English Teacher would read something like this: Weak effort; this student is too easily distracted, fails to follow through and turns in unfinished work.

Rated: 1.5/4

May 30, 2013

Full Review

Debbie Lynn Elias

Behind The Lens

For everyone who has ever picked up a book, fell in love with language and literature or who has dreamed a dream, for every teacher that inspired, this is The English Teacher they will never forget.

Nov 27, 2019

Full Review

Noah Berlatsky

Splice Today

Linda is characterized by the insistent voice-over as a romantic, too lost in her reading and dreams for authentic relationships. Those authentic relationships, are, in this context, the formulaic plot of rom-com.

Sep 16, 2019

Full Review

Nicholas Bell

IONCINEMA.com

Zisk's film seems plagued by the same conservative powers that run the high school and it plays like a perfectly sanitized bore.

Aug 20, 2019

Full Review

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Synopsis

The life of a popular teacher (Julianne Moore) turns topsy-turvy when a former star pupil returns home after a failed career as a playwright. Unwilling to see the young man give up his dream, she decides to produce his play at her high school.

Director: Craig Zisk
Executive Producer: Michael Bederman, Ron Curtis, Adi Ezroni, John Santilli, Mandy Tagger Brockey
Screenwriter: Dan Chariton, Stacy Chariton
Distributor: Cinedigm
Production Co: Procinvest Sas, Artina Films, Mirabelle Pictures, Mirabelle Pictures Productions
Rating: R (Sexual Content|Language)
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): May 17, 2013, Limited
Release Date (Streaming): Aug 30, 2016
Box Office (Gross USA): $60.2K

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