Bad Teacher

Despite a talented cast, Jake Kasdan's Bad Teacher is a disappointingly clunky comedy. Cameron Diaz does nothing to damage her reputation as a fine comic actor, but her character is underdeveloped. Diaz plays Elizabeth Halsey, a gold-digging schoolteacher (?) eager to find a new target after getting dumped. When she learns that the new sub, Scott (Justin Timberlake), has family money, she sets out to woo him. Challenges come from Russell (Jason Segel, presumably just playing a bored guy), the schlubby gym teacher who pursues Elizabeth, and Amy Squirrel (Lucy Punch), who, in addition to seeming like a pretty good match for Scott, is an unforgivably peppy and dedicated teacher of children. Diaz, Punch, and Phyllis Smith (as another teacher) know how to humanize these broad characterizations, while Timberlake plays down to the dorky Scott as though he was in a SNL skit. Bad Teacher is unevenly written and haphazardly edited, as many punch lines seem to come a beat too late. The kids remain sadly undifferentiated, and Elizabeth's half-hearted effort to help one of them ends up seeming like a cop-out. The rivalry between Elizabeth and Amy generates some laughs, but it's clear we're supposed to be rooting for Diaz's lazy, foul-mouthed, selfish striver, and there's no compelling reason to.