Words by JANE CROWTHER
Having premiered at TIFF last year, this dark comedy arrives in cinemas just as the Autumn school term gets under way. There will no doubt be educators for whom this story of a frazzled primary school teacher with a troublemaker in her classroom will be triggering. But for everyone else it’s a mean little amusement which, like the bad apple kid at its heart, starts out ferocious and ultimately, when stuck in a corner, runs out of steam.
Maria (Saoirse Ronan) is a sad teacher living in a sad house recently vacated by her colleague lover. Heartbroken and alone, she simply exists in an ugly, in-flux home (she had hopes of doing it up and ‘making it lovely’ during her romance) and at work where her classroom is dominated by a disruptive, aggressive pupil, Danny (Eddie Waller). We know Danny is a wrong ‘un when we’re first introduced to the exasperation and resignation of Maria as she takes a school trip to an apple pressing factory and Danny purposefully chucks his shoe into the machines, spoiling the produce and the outing. When he’s not causing damage to objects, this feral child is bullying other kids or causing rageful chaos in class.
Maria is drained, thwarted, frustrated. No one here is reaching their full potential while Danny rampages, least of all her. But what happens if a chance meeting with Danny turns into an accidental criminal act? If Maria can keep him away from school, doesn’t life get better for everyone? Who is really the bad apple then?
While Bad Apples begins in grey reality, it soon veers out of credibility and into satire that isn’t quite bold enough to be really transgressive. Ronan elicits compassion for Maria despite her character being morally slippery and the situation she finds herself in demanding comeuppance or clever escape. Neither are forthcoming in a solution that turns almost Wicker Man before tapping out on an open ending that might frustrate.
That said, it’s horrible fun to watch Maria spar with two manipulative little tikes; damaged, damaging Danny and teacher’s pet Pauline (Nia Brown). Both kids are nightmares in their own way, both coming from homes of absentee parents. And neither are entirely what they present in the classroom. Waller is excellent at traversing the leering swagger of a bully to the pitiful cries of a boy who believes no one cares about him, while Brown makes Pauline increasingly unhinged as she insists on living her best school life. It’s their performances that do the work of asking audiences uncomfortable questions; about nature vs nurture, the sins of the fathers and how any of us can be the well rounded people we hope to be if school or society funnel us through a machine designed to crush us all into a homogeneous juice.
Words by JANE CROWTHER
Images courtesy of PARAMOUNT PICTURES
Bad Apples is in cinemas now
