Affair teaches painful lessons
Long on atmosphere and short on believability, “A Teacher” tracks a young Texas high school teacher sometime after she has started having sex with one of her students.
Diana (Lindsay Burdge) is pounding drinks at a bar with her roommate not long after this debut feature by Hannah Fidell opens, giggling at a text message on her cell. Soon enough, though, she’s breaking the law with her mystery texter, Eric (Will Brittain), in a car parked on a suburban street so inky black and conveniently deserted that the setting looks like what it is: a location that was cleared for a shoot.
If the site feels artificial it’s because it makes no narrative or psychological sense. The characters are hiding in a public place that seems to have been chosen only for its symbolism — down these nice middle-class streets, trouble must go — and to suggest one of those classic scenes of two teenagers sneaking and fooling around, except that these aren’t just kids.
This scarcely matters to Fidell, who has a fine eye but not the makings of a feature-length movie. It quickly becomes clear, he isn’t interested in this relationship or the moral, ethical and legal issues it raises. The graver problem is that the characters show no interest in them, either, which makes them seem somewhat stupid.
It’s frustrating how little does interest Fidell, including how the lovers hooked up and whether Diana suggested that Eric stay after class or whether it was his idea. His reasons for the affair are never broached, presumably because it’s meant to be self-evident why a teenage boy would want to sleep with his pretty, hot-to-trot teacher. The implication is that he would emerge from the affair just fine, which effectively makes him a prop in what becomes a portrait of a psychological meltdown.
To that narrative end, Fidell tries to suggest a sense of Diana’s internal weather, notably her isolation, which is telegraphed with many shots of her by herself, literally, or alone in the frame. She also runs a lot, at least a marathon’s worth, which is a great deal of mileage for a movie that itself runs too long at 77 minutes.