Madame Hyde

Even the extraordinary Isabelle Huppert could not save this dog from the pound. What on earth compelled her to agree to do such a bad picture. Mind boggling!

The only thing worse than sci-fi is sci-fi done badly. Isabelle gets some glow-in-the dark powers. When her inner light comes on she can kill a school kid, or she can just sit on a bench outside her home and stare at the moon. Whatever. There is a lack of continuity and understanding here. It's as if the filmmakers want you to guess what just happened knowing you'll never figure it out. Nevah! In short order, why does she only care about one student (the guy Malik) and none of the others? They are all behaving like animals, but Malik is the object of her attention. Everyone else is chopped liver. What causes her mysterious glow to turn and off? Stress? Stubbed her toe? Hot flashes? Why is she so nasty to her bleeding heart sappy doormat of a husband? Besides Malik, the only other "thing" that happens is her tribulations in earning tenure. Which at one instant looks like an epic fail and in the next is her fait accompli. I gave an hour and a half to this malarky and I'm worse off for it.

French style of polar mixed with sci-fi. But it's flat, slow, no relevance and boring.

1. Representation of how a school is administered including teacher or student evaluations was incorrect. 2. Lecture vs. lab time for high school physics poorly if not mostly incorrect. 3. Teacher conduct was make believe. Acting was weird as if the writers, actor and director had never been in a school. 4. Student behavior maybe 30% correct. 5. Our electrified teacher was nonsense, and when shown contributed little to our storyline fantasy.

Mrs Hyde (2018)

This is a quirky little film, held together by the sincerely studied acting of Isabelle Huppert. Romain Duris as the school principal is a bit miscast, but José Garcia as Huppert's sweet and loving husband might be the second highlight overall. It begins a bit tired, in my view, with yet another version of a classroom filled with unruly students and a teacher who can't cope. It's not unconvincing, but it has no freshness at all (except maybe Huppert's slightly unlikely incompetence). But this is the point of the movie underlying the more sensational paranormal stuff. The big twist is well advertised but I won't say what it is, except to point to the title and its reference to the Hyde of Dr. Jekyll. Huppert's character is meant to show two halves in opposition. Don't forget this is a kind of wry comedy, though it isn't outrageous and perky enough to ever quite take off. If there is an element of the mystical, or of something serious, then that, too, is watered down and not enough. The basic premise here might have had promise, but the adaptation and actual script are weak. There's no special reason to watch this film unless some odd aspect to all this strikes your fancy.