adminRunning time: 85 minutes
Type of film: Romantic drama
Age restriction: 16
Reviewed by Prof Joel White
I am of two minds about this film.
The setting is the heart of New York City, my hometown. My high school was for boys only; Buckston Academy High School, the setting for this film, is co-educational. Kyle Kingson (Alex Pettyfer) has just commenced his senior year. In the slang/shorthand employed in the school’s hallways, he is B M O C (Big Man on Campus).
His behaviour, as measured by any outsider, would be considered obnoxious: wild-haired, handsome, athletic, chairman of the student body. He is scathing toward any student who does not bow down to his authority.
Totally unaccustomed to things not going his way, he is stunned when his girlfriend dumps him. Worse, he has “words” with the school witch, who puts a spell on him. Living with only his father, an affluent businessman who gives his son little attention, he awakens to find that the witch’s curse has taken full effect.
His head, face, body and all are now a mass of cuts and scars. It is clearly impossible for him to face or move among his fellow students.
In this frightful situation, his father opts for home schooling for him. He is given an apartment in the city, and a tutor (blind) is hired, as a live-in, as well as a maid (such is possible when money flows like water).
Oddly, and perhaps unfortunately, the stories which both the blind tutor and the illegal immigrant maid bring with them and which are only fleetingly touched upon in the film, take one’s eye off the plot of the film.
An extremely pretty high school girl, Lindy Taylor (played by Vanessa Hudgens) comes across his path, not knowing of his past, not knowing he was once “king of the roost” at his high school, and – this is Hollywood – falls in love with him, scarred, twisted and smashed as he is.
Influenced by her kind and generous nature, he begins to accompany her on her rounds as she attends to the poor and ill.
We, the audience, are carried along and led to return to the unfortunate backgrounds of the blind tutor and maid. Now, in his present and lamentable condition, our hero, Kyle becomes sympathetic to the plight of the disadvantaged.
Magically – no other explanation is given – his face and body return to their former pristine state and as the film ends he is back in school, with the lovely Lindy Taylor at his side. And I am left asking myself: Do I regret he didn’t get the blighted future I felt he deserved?
Online Reporter