A Teacher's Crime

A TEACHER'S CRIME (2008 TV Movie) 3.5 out of 10 stars Time to Read: 2:15 min

BASIC PLOT: Carrie Ryans (Ashley Jones) is under appreciated by everyone in her life. Her ex-husband Evan (Tom Rack) ran off with a floozy, and is now trying to get custody of their daughter, Lacey (Veronique-Natale Szalankiewicz). Carrie is determined to fulfill her daughter's wishes, and make sure Lacey never lives with her husband's girlfriend.

Carrie was blessed with the means to fight this battle. She inherited a great deal of money from her father, David (Art Hindle), but choose to become a school teacher, instead of just living off her trust fund.

Little does she know, there are forces plotting against her. Bill Rander (Chris Mulkey), is a used car salesman, and a con man. He owes money to the wrong people, and has to find a way to make a quick buck. He's decided to use his orphaned nephew, Jeremy (Erik Knudsen), one of Carrie's students, as bait, to extort money from her. Bill thinks if he can get compromising photos of Carrie & Jeremy, she'll pay anything to keep them away from her custody fight.

But things aren't going the way Bill planned, and he might have to turn up the heat.

Can Carrie discover the forces plotting against her, in time to save herself, and her family?

WHAT WORKS: *THE PRINCIPAL ACTORS DO A FINE JOB I watched this is movie primarily because I'm a fan of Chris Mulkey, Ashley Jones & Erik Knudsen. They held my attention until 1:15 mark, but they couldn't save this flawed script.

WHAT DOESN'T WORK: *THIS TYPE OF WOMAN DOESN'T WAIT AROUND FOR A CHEATING MAN TO COME HOME Carrie Ryans is a no nonsense woman, who could have lived off her inheritance, but instead decided to become a teacher, a hard and thankless job. We, the viewer, are supposed to believe Carrie fights her ex on matters of child rearing, but let's him run all over her in every other way. This is not the type of woman who waits around for a cheating husband, while he's off living with his skanky girlfriend. Nor is she the type of woman who welcomes him back with open arms (literally), simply because he had a fight with said girlfriend. Not believable in any way (and also NOT a good message to send to women!).

*THE PICTURES ARE TOO INNOCUOUS I'm sorry, but the police are NOT STUPID! Woman with a rich father - then father dies mysteriously - blackmailer comes out of the woodwork with pictures that don't show ANYTHING - and blackmails her for half a million dollars. The police would not suspect her, they would immediately suspect the blackmailer of murder. The movie falls apart here at the halfway mark, because the blackmail pictures show a woman giving a very motherly hug to a student in a public place (a park in daytime). The premise that anyone would submit to blackmail, on the face of these pictures is LUDICROUS! Let's also not forget that rich people have lawyers, private investigators, and pull in general. She would simply pick up the phone, and since the kid in the pictures is connected to the blackmailer, it wouldn't take long for her PI's, or the police to put two and two together. It therefore becomes pointless to watch the rest of the movie, because you're suspension of disbelief is GONE! Epic fail Christine Conradt &Corbin Mezner (writers)

TO RECOMMEND, OR NOT TO RECOMMEND, THAT IS THE QUESTION: *I can't recommend this, because the story makes NO SENSE! There's good acting here from Chris Mulkey, Ashley Jones & nm461712. But the writers, Christine Conradt &Corbin Mezner ask us to believe in plotlines that are so inconceivably stupid, they suspend all disbelief. All the great actors in the world can't save a script this flawed.

If you're looking for an entertaining made-for-tv melodrama from Christine Conradt, try Missing at 17 (2013). It's much better, and the plot makes sense.

CLOSING NOTES: *THIS IS A MADE-FOR-TV MOVIE, please keep that in mind before you watch\rate it. TV movies have a much lower budget, and so your expectations should be adjusted.

*I HAVE NO CONNECTION TO THE FILM, or production in ANY way. This review was NOT written in full, or in part, by a bot. I am just an honest viewer, who wishes for more straight forward reviews (less trolls and fanboys), and better entertainment. Hope I helped you out.

Couple Carrie (Ashley Jones) and Dean Ryans are having problems. Carrie is a high school teacher who takes an interest in orphaned student Jeremy Rander (Erik Knudsen). She doesn't know that it's a setup. Jeremy's uncle Bill (Chris Mulkey) is in debt to some bad people for his failing used car lot. They know that she has a wealthy father. After he kills her father, Bill blackmails Carrie for $500k.

It's obvious that Jeremy is helping setting her up and it doesn't even occur to Carrie. It's really stupid. She is too naive. The pictures are all her and Jeremy. Unless somebody is following her 24/7, it's obvious that he's part of the plan. She really should contact the police right away especially since there are no sex pictures. They could set up a payoff and arrest the culprit like David Letterman. The movie has no danger because there is a wide open road for her to drive through.

A young history teacher is being set-up by a student and his care-giving uncle, which takes pictures of she and the student hugging. It's a set-up, but the student is having second thoughts. But things are even worse...

This is obviously a Canadian TV-movie with production values as one. But with a good idea, and good enough to keep you interested. Though the actors are good, I'm afraid it shines through that something is lacking for this to be really good. A bit cheesy music and happy ending, as you know there won't be a sequel, which nowadays ruins many endings.

The actors do a good job, especially Erik Knudsen, who plays the student. He acts like he really is an troubled orphan on the wrong side of the law, and is able to not overplay.

I see this is bashed by some reviewers here, but more than it deserves. Due to the idea and the drive of the story I think it deserves a pretty good review by me. I was entertained so much that it's easy to see through the flaws. He film could have been way better with more time spent on the ending.

Has anyone noticed that Ashley Jones resembles a rather youthful Hillary Clinton?

Jones portrays a recently separated teacher who has won the teacher of the year award for going that extra mile for her social studies students. Problem is that by going that extra mile, she falls victim to a diabolic plot hatched by one of her excellent students along with his crooked uncle. New teachers should take note: Don't get overly involved.

Nice to see that factual information is included in one of the teacher's lessons. I am referring to the April, 1949 date of the beginning of NATO. Nowadays, facts are deemphasized for more critical thinking. That's why our students do so poorly on history exams. The lack of basic factual information is not there. Yes, the author of this review is a retired social studies teacher.

The movie is intriguing as you are shown how the teacher is set up.

It is certainly worthwhile viewing.

I understand Army Wives is a significant departure from the standard Lifetime fare. I assume that's why the premiere of its second season scored record-breaking ratings. Most of the women's cable channel productions are meant for stay-at-home wives and mothers, and females who enjoy stories about being victimized. This one, however, reaches new lows: bad acting, worse writing and a bad plot line. I think soap operas are better than this and I don't even watch them. The chilling message in "A Teacher's Crime" is that teachers should not get close to or go above and beyond to help their students or they might wind up being accused of having affairs with them. Instead of being dedicated to their profession, public school teachers who watch this may decide that they should just put in the time until they retire, collect their benefits and retire with big pensions at taxpayers' expense.

Ironically, I watched this movie on Father's Day weekend when Lifetime was showing "good dad, bad dad" fare. The emphasis apparently is "bad dad," standard for this male-hating cable channel.