The Good Student
The Good Student
R | 01 January 2006 (USA)
The Good Student Trailers

When Ally, a popular teen and local celebrity goes missing, her small suburban town erupts in panic.

Reviews
StyleSk8r At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.
KnotStronger This is a must-see and one of the best documentaries - and films - of this year.
Zandra The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.
Cassandra Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.
Michael Ledo In Poughkeepsie, New York Ronald Gibb (Tim Daly) is a history teacher in love with history. He has minor relationship issues. He fantasizes about a student, Ally Palmer (Hayden Panettiere), a hot blonde with a surname that the writer thought clever. His innocent infatuation with her is noticed by another student, Amber (Sarah Steele) who unfortunately for Mr. Gibb has a passion for photography. When Ally is abducted, Ronald Gibb, the last man to see her, becomes the prime suspect.The characters in the film were rather bland and the film had a made-for-TV feel about it. On the plus side we get to see Hayden Panettiere tied up. If she had struggled more, I could have gone 8 stars.Guide: F-bomb. No sex or nudity.
SnoopyStyle Mr. Ronald Gibb (Tim Daly) is a depressed slovenly widowed high school history teacher. His students are bored. His neighbor Holly (Paula Devicq) is interested in him. He has a crush on popular cheerleader Ally Palmer (Hayden Panettiere). She's in a TV ad for her father (William Sadler)'s used car lot. Smart alec Amber (Sarah Steele) teases him about it. Ally breaks up with her boyfriend Brett and Gibb drives her home. Janitor Gabe (Dan Hedaya) notices them together. She gives him a kiss. Then she's kidnapped from her home. Amber publishes a picture of the kiss and Gibb is suspended from school.The production is a bit weak. Director David Ostry doesn't have a compelling style. The movie tries to be quirky but mostly fails. It's also not dark enough. I follow this for the kidnapping mystery but not much else.
Jessi Cyrus I watched this movie on t.v. and I really liked it, so much as to try to find a website where I could rewatch it for free. I like Hayden Panettiere and thought she acted well in this movie. The movie surprised me twice. Once when Ally seemed friendly to her teacher and not creeped out by him, and again when he held her hostage but didn't do anything, then talked back to Ally's dad. I think it's kind of a weird and unusual movie, and those are exactly the kind of movies that I like. They aren't the same layout as other "cookiecutter" films. I tend to gravitate towards movies that contain certain characters, and Ally and her teacher were two of those types of characters (cool teenage girl) (odd eccentric guy) that I like to see in movies. I think The Good Student is a movie that can answer someone's "what ifs" about what if a teacher held one of their students hostage, but he decided to be nice and not hurt her and let her go?
edwagreen After watching this teacher teaching high school history, you know why some of our teaching is bad as well as this film.This teacher is as dull as they come. Dressing up like Lincoln at his March, 1861 Inaugural was really the absolute nonsense here.To make matters worse, our miserable teacher is the narrator in this ridiculous movie with a genre of black comedy. It is just ultimately ridiculous.This teacher is leading a dull life as well and all that changes with the kidnapping of one of his students. You would think that this would become an interesting who did it, but the whole film falls apart. The kidnapped girl's father acts erratically. What father of a kidnapped teenager would go on television and reduce the prices of his car as a motivation to get his daughter back?Dad should have been investigated immediately. There is something radically wrong with the writing here. This is a complete joke.