Um Professor Em Apuros

Mike Million's 'Tenure' gives the impression that it's a university campus comedy. I found the premise refreshing and appealing. The problem is that the comedy parts are just not that funny and Million tries too much to make it quirky funny to the point that it backfires as he goes way over the top and tumbles down.

I found the Jay Hadley character very annoying and not to be a very believable professor. The Rosemarie DeWitt track also felt out-of-place. The movie should have just stayed focused on the key character Charlie Thurber. Many people of his age would be able to relate to what he's going through. I liked the Million avoids clichés in places. For example, the Teacher's pet sequence was well done.

On the technical side, the score is pretty good and the camera captures the simplicity and beauty of the location. The woods and countryside are nice to look at. The pacing is very slow, especially at the beginning. Luke Wilson is terrific. His restrained performance as Charlie makes the character all the more real. And if this film is worth watching then it's mostly because of him. David Koechner does his best with an ill-written character. Gretchen Mol is cute and likable. Sasha Alexander is wasted.

Overall, it's not as bad as many reviewers have made it out to be but it could have easily been a lot better.

This movie was not written for a mass market. It was and is a labor of love. It's narrow cast audience will know who they are. I say, Give this movie a chance, and you may end up laughing out loud a number times as I did, along with a good number of knowing chuckles.

I felt the movie overall, was very well done in many aspects of film making. In all, a joy for me. I'd say anyone remotely affiliated with University life, and an open mind, will have a lot of fun watching this movie, and an enjoyable experience.

I'm sorry I'm not as erudite describing the movie from a technical perspective, as some of the other reviewers, but I just had to write out my feelings about this Gem of a movie.

Thanks to the producers, to MIke Million, and the well cast actors for making this movie! Thanks to ALL who were involved in making it!! Thank You!

Smart little film about a college teacher (Wilson) facing tenure review. He's a great teacher but has barely been published and is not enough of a politician. Along comes a new assistant professor (Mol) from Yale of all places, and now he's facing competition. His best buddy, a slightly deranged anthropology teacher (Koechner), convinces him to sabotage the new arrival at every turn. Problem is, the new arrival is unsure of herself and the two "competitors" become friends. Wilson is perfect in his role, and Koechner is wonderfully daffy as a Sasquatch worshiper. Mol is pretty, but truthfully isn't given that much to do. There's a nice ongoing bit about Wilson's character and his aging dad (Gunton), who unhappily resides in a nursing home. Filmed on the campus of Bryn Mawr. Very relaxed, nothing artificial, nothing forced, to the very end.

This film was a delight to watch, but did get slow at parts. At parts you did feel a little bored, but something would come up to get your attention back for a bit. It had light humor, but it was a nice chuckle and relaxing. The cast in the film was pretty good. Luke Wilson was decent, but not his best role. Now they needed an actor to play a off the wall weird teacher who is obsessed with bigfoot. So they picked David Koechner, who at first I thought wouldn't fit, but he proved me wrong. Gretchen Mol played the main female role and she did a good job. The film is all about a teacher trying to get tenure. That in itself sounds like a boring piece of work, but luckily they did put some humor in the film. That is basically what David Koechner was for. Some scenes were a bit out of the ordinary, but it really fit with the film. This independent film didn't rely on anything crazy like special effects. Just nice dialog and a decent cast. This would be one of those nice Sunday afternoon movies to watch.

I am not going to bash this movie as many have done... I saw the movie, and was think I set the bar too high. Without giving away too much of the movie, I found that the acting was good, the story was different from a "bottled, formulaic, Animal House-ish" rewrite college comedy.

It was smart, clever, and told a good tale, there was only a small amount of unanswered questions I had in my mind when it ended... I stared at the screen and said... "OK...it wasn't awful, it was .... well OK"

The bottom line is, I am not going to say it was a horrible movie, because it was not... I found that I was entertained by the movie, and they did not try to market it as a blockbuster.. A decent film, and not too far removed from what it was about.. trying to get tenure at a College.