A young mysterious male student, Vance Van Sickle (Blake Michael), shows up in Professor Abigail Grandacre's (Alicia Leigh Willis) legal ethics college course and immediately proves to be more than she can handle, or does he?
What unfolds is a cat and mouse game between the student and teacher that is about as messy a plot as a toddler after cake and ice cream at his or her birthday party. Initially, it isn't clear what Vance's motive is for his game of chess that he plays with our teacher, but one thing we do know: he's very smart, and for most of the movie, he stays one step ahead of our equally-intelligent teacher. Along the way, we learn of some very damning skeletons our "ethics" teacher has hiding in her closet that, in many ways, connects with our student. Only problem is that as good of a twist this revelation is to the plot, it was never Vance's initial motive for his vendetta with Professor Grandacre--when it should have been. Even after this reveal, Vance "still" doesn't much use this information to his advantage.
In the end, Vance falls for the professor's trap and pays the ultimate price. But the entire climactic sequence makes no sense given how intelligent our student is supposed to be. Cliche as it may be, even Stevie Wonder would have seen what the teacher was up to.
All that said, the film isn't great but was still very watchable, mainly because Willis does a great job in the female lead role. Blake Michael? Well, at least he's great on the eyes. I'll just leave it at that. Other small-time actors Wolfgang Bodison (A Few Good Men), Eric Nelsen (A Walk Among the Tombstones), Michelle DeFraites (All the Creatures Were Stirring), and Trevor St. John (Higher Learning) all make small appearances of little impact. That said, I was still disappointed in the way in which the writers simply wrote off the growing interaction between Vance and another student, Claire (DeFraites). Just when our story between the two was getting interesting, Clair leaves a heated "scene" never to be "seen" again. (No pun intended.) This was a huge mistake to the continuity of our story, but it pretty much sums up just how bad this film's plot is.
What unfolds is a cat and mouse game between the student and teacher that is about as messy a plot as a toddler after cake and ice cream at his or her birthday party. Initially, it isn't clear what Vance's motive is for his game of chess that he plays with our teacher, but one thing we do know: he's very smart, and for most of the movie, he stays one step ahead of our equally-intelligent teacher. Along the way, we learn of some very damning skeletons our "ethics" teacher has hiding in her closet that, in many ways, connects with our student. Only problem is that as good of a twist this revelation is to the plot, it was never Vance's initial motive for his vendetta with Professor Grandacre--when it should have been. Even after this reveal, Vance "still" doesn't much use this information to his advantage.
In the end, Vance falls for the professor's trap and pays the ultimate price. But the entire climactic sequence makes no sense given how intelligent our student is supposed to be. Cliche as it may be, even Stevie Wonder would have seen what the teacher was up to.
All that said, the film isn't great but was still very watchable, mainly because Willis does a great job in the female lead role. Blake Michael? Well, at least he's great on the eyes. I'll just leave it at that. Other small-time actors Wolfgang Bodison (A Few Good Men), Eric Nelsen (A Walk Among the Tombstones), Michelle DeFraites (All the Creatures Were Stirring), and Trevor St. John (Higher Learning) all make small appearances of little impact. That said, I was still disappointed in the way in which the writers simply wrote off the growing interaction between Vance and another student, Claire (DeFraites). Just when our story between the two was getting interesting, Clair leaves a heated "scene" never to be "seen" again. (No pun intended.) This was a huge mistake to the continuity of our story, but it pretty much sums up just how bad this film's plot is.