Dangereuse alchimie

Oh boy, where to begin...

First off, it's a Lifetime Network movie, so you should know exactly what you're getting into when you turn to that channel. That being said, I never really sat through one of these long-winded diatribes before. You know right off the bat what's going to happen, and nothing comes as a surprise.

Elizabeth Berkley stars as the new teacher at some generic high school. Being young and attractive, she warrants the wrong kind of attention form some of her male students (and I think one of the girl students, too, but lesbianism is handled with graceful subtlety on Lifetime). After she begins tutoring one of her students, Josh, he becomes obsessed with her.

One thing leads to another, and Josh thinks they have something more than a teacher-student relationship. He forces a kiss on her in the hallway, then flips out and attacks her at home, ripping her shirt but nothing else.

Somehow, Josh's Dad and his lawyers are able to spin it as if it was the hot, young teacher was to blame for the whole thing. Then, the rest of the movie deals with her struggle to maintain her innocence.

You know what is going to happen. You know how it is going to end. Every single character looks plucked straight from the Big Book of Clichés; young, headstrong teacher, her doubting husband, her incompetent lawyer telling her to plead guilty, only one student who believes in her, the slimy cops and lawyers who are seemingly out to ruin one woman's life so some rich kid won't have to spend a month in juvenile hall. It is all so terribly predictable, and everyone acting in the film seems to know it, also.

I still don't get a few things, though. How on earth could those lawyers spin the facts to make Berkley seem like the predator? Wouldn't one tough (but effective) interrogation of Josh show what really happened? The characters seem to perpetuate on a different level where rational thinking and deductive logic make as much sense as looking for WMDs in Iraq (heh).

Now you understand my summary line. It is boring, stupid, pointless. I'm pretty sure these movies will serve as a backfire and hurt the reputation of women in the sense that they will always be viewed as the victim, and never the one who (gasp) is really guilty. Thank God I had three beers before sitting down in front of this one.

Is there anything that happens in this movie that is NOT predictable? I think not. Basically the movie is cliché after cliché and really nothing ever comes as a surprise. It makes the movie extremely predictable and because of that the movie is also seriously lacking in tension. So for a thriller it is not tense and unpredictable enough but also as a drama it's a failure. This is because the movie its story is highly unlikely. I mean, no way this could ever happen in real life, as in the same way as the events occur in this movie. So the movie has a real suspense and credibility problem.

But it truly are the clichés that killed the movie. It was cringing stuff at times. Everything is so formulaic in this movie. The predator is portrayed as a cool heartless, almost psychopath like sexual frustrated boy and the victim as a naive young woman, who acts like she didn't see any of this coming. Everything that happened in the movie was so obvious and all seemed to happen for a reason. Such as the sequence in which the 'predator' fixes the 'victims' broken car. That has got to be one of the oldest clichés out of the book. I knew what the movie tried to achieve after that point. I tried to look as if the teacher and the student were really growing toward each other trough the eyes of the other persons around them. It was so incredibly obvious and cheap that I almost wanted to stop watching the movie after that point. The movie is filled with moments like these.

The title might suggest that this is a cheap porn movie but this in fact is a sappy made for TV movie. Which means that everything is slowly happening and the movie spends halve its time on character development and unnecessary sub-plots to make the movie even more drama like.

I'll admit that Elizabeth Berkley is pretty good acting in this movie. She makes some of the clichés and events look even almost realistic at times. Her Hollywood career is as good as over after appearing in the Paul Verhoeven movie "Showgirls", so unfortunately she will probably only still appear in movies- and television series like this one. It's a waste of her talent and she surely deserves better. All of the other characters are a disappointment. Corey Sevier plays the cliché pretty 'untouchable' rich boy and the way the husband of the main character is portrayed is even worse. He looks more like a sexual frustrated predator than the true predator of the movie. He basically tries to have sex with his wife in every sequence. He wakes up, he wants sex. Before he goes to sleep, he wants sex. He gets home, he wants sex. It might be a realistic thing but I don't know, it just didn't feel right for a movie like this one and the story in general.

A cliché filled movie and I can't think of any reason why anyone should ever watch this movie. It's predictable and therefor also lacks in suspense and credibility. Not an 'horrible' movie and it certainly is a watchable one at times but all the weak and cliché elements in the movie also make this far from a recommendable one.

4/10

http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/

I saw "Student Seduction" on Lifetime this evening for the first time, and I enjoyed it very much. I felt Elizabeth Berkeley was great as the chemistry teacher, and Corey Sevier did a nice job as Josh. I tried to put myself in the teacher's position, and think how I would react to such false allegations that the student was in fact guilty of performing. This would not be easy, especially for a first-year teacher dealing with a wealthy student. I was pleased when other students came forward in the teacher's defense, because she did not deserve to be assaulted by someone whom she was trying to help succeed but who misinterpreted her intentions.

This is a story that could take place in real life. I think it sends a message to teachers and school faculty to be careful in your interactions with your students, and avoid being alone with them whenever possible. Also, stand up for your rights! Do this no matter what profession you are in, and have supporting evidence and sources. Great movie!

Pretty chemistry teacher Elizabeth Berkley (as Christie Dawson) offers to tutor handsome student Corey Sevier (as Joshua "Josh" Gaines) after school. Used to having his way with women, Mr. Sevier makes sexual advances, which Ms. Berkley refuses. Persistence leads to accusations... This is a very predictable story, but refreshing in that it does not follow the path you are initially expecting; this makes the title "Student Seduction" highly misleading. Credit should be given to director Peter Svatek and a fine cast, for keeping performances appropriate. In particular, Berkley is attractive without being seductive. Sevier and Sarah Allen (as Jenna) do well as the students. Unfortunately, we are treated to obvious plot plants throughout. You will be able to spot future "witnesses" easily, along with the behavior which could prove to be the perpetrator's undoing.

**** Student Seduction (5/5/03) Peter Svatek ~ Elizabeth Berkley, Corey Sevier, Rick Roberts, Sarah Allen

There are a couple of prior comments here which opine about this flick's abundance of clichés throughout -- and I agree completely, both with regard to the characters AND the dialog.

I'd read about Elizabeth Berkly's awful performance in the equally-awful "Showgirls," which I've never seen - and her performance here, while not awful, is barely up to the standards of Lifetime's worse fare. There was not a hint of depth to her character, but then there probably shouldn't have been. If so, it would have placed the film completely out-of-balance, since there wasn't a hint of depth or charisma - not a trace - in any one character, performer, or portrayal.

The principal's handling of Liz's initial complaint after her tutee had kissed her in the hall was laughable. Her husband's initial reaction and advice were likewise (Forrest Gump, attacking Jenny's boyfriend in his car provided a more realistic, intelligent action, and, hell, he was mentally-challenged).

The smarmy, unctuous lawyer (excuse the redundancy) father of the lying student actually performed something probably worthy of praise in his performance: he was both laughable and thoroughly annoying at the same time, no mean feat. Her attorney was more of an insensitive nerd, also not unknown in the profession.

Finally (and frankly, I rather enjoyed this part), the police were such a collection of insensitive oafs, that you'd rather depend upon Barney Fife, without Andy, to handle all law enforcement and investigation in your community. I know that most real-like cops fall a bit short of the sharpness, intelligence and empathy of the level displayed by most characters on the "Law and Order" series', and the like -- but dolts of this level seem to be a staple on "Lifetime."

Finally, I found a kind of "story within a story" fascination with Josh's concoction of his being the "victim" of his teacher. This scripted performance within the story was even worse than his overall performance in the main story. This was something of an achievement, like going from "F" to "F-minus."

This whole lame situation should have been resolved - in real life - in about 15 minutes, following a realistic meeting between teacher and school authorities, with husband involved. But then that would have precluded the contrived drama following, and left an hour's blank film in the camera.

But the writer(s) here, proved with their ending, they could do even worse. When the situation was finally "resolved" and "righted," this was accomplished in all of about 45 seconds, with no indication of what measures might have been forthcoming in any "real world" context for the perpetrator and his parents, or whether they might have been able to find some sort of path toward redemption.

This one's a 2* presentation; the second "*" because it does have some mild "fascination."