Just bad: Diaz's 'Teacher' has audiences dropping out

Jake Kasdan's Bad Teacher immediately brings Bad Santa to mind, and suffers by the comparison. Its bad teacher is neither bad enough nor likable enough. The transgressions of Elizabeth Halsey (Cameron Diaz) are more or less what you'd expect, but what's surprising is that she's so nasty and unpleasant. Billy Bob Thornton, as the bad Santa, was more outrageously offensive and yet more redeemed by his desperation. He was bad for urgent reasons. Elizabeth seems bad merely as a greedy lifestyle choice.

As the film opens, the Diaz character is engaged to a rich guy she leeches on but doesn't love. She's dumped and has to return to middle school teaching, an occupation she has no talent for or interest in, and passes the time showing DVDs to her students and napping, drinking and doing drugs at her desk. This creates astonishment and indignation in the charmingly named Amy Squirrel (Lucy Punch), whose classroom is right across the hall. Full review.