Student Seduction

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

Student Seduction is a wonderful movie.

At first when i saw Elizabeth Berkley was in it, I thought it would be another reprise of her performance in Showgirls, which was to say totally awful.

But then when i watched it i realized it was a new and improved Elizabeth Berkley. Which i thought was wonderful. She went from Saved by the Bell to Showgirls and now Student Seduction.

Its a wonderful movie.

10/10

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."

"Student Seduction" was an inadequate portrayal of a teacher caught in the fantasies of a student. The acting of the two main characters, Christie Dawson (Elizabeth Berkley) and Josh Gaines (Corey Sevier), was very well done, and I applaud their effort. However, the film was almost unbelievable.

What I didn't like was the long sex scenes. There were a couple key scenes that were cut short and leaving you wondering what just happened and confused because the actions weren't fully explained. Instead of elaborating these short, key scenes, the editors chose to keep the ridiculously long sex scenes with no purpose. I understand the entertainment value, but come on! If you need a sex scene that much, that you have to have important scenes cut short, then you need to re-evaluate the entire premise of the movie!

All in all, I applaud the two main actors, but I am criticizing everything else.

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.