Teringer
An Exercise In Nonsense
Griff Lees
Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.
Guillelmina
The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.
westsideschl
1. The portrayal of the post secondary "academic community" (in quotes for a reason) was so stereotypically artificial from the parties to the discourse to the mannerisms that it provoked me to write this wearing tweed; smoking a pipe & drinking from my Bordeaux glass or is it a Burgundy glass?
2. The abrasive part of the teaching style was simply made up as were the constant "air quotes".
3. Some viewers condemned the prof for taking advantage - get human & real!
4. The family turmoil from an affair, and the spurious academic committee review seemed too "made-up".
5. Ending had a cheap cute cleverness that fit w/the rest of the movie.
smoke0
Stanley Tucci comes off from the start of this film as very self-aware and intelligent, so the first half of the film had me guessing that he was trying to manipulate his student in order to steal her manuscript, while she was trying to manipulate him in order to get a book deal and each suspected the other's intentions. No such luck, as it turns out, because apparently we are supposed to believe that he really believed the student actually was attracted to him, and that's where the film lost me. There could have been a good cat and mouse story here, but there wasn't, and the ending wound up feeling more like Election and less like the Blue Angel, and this film isn't as clever as either of those.
adonis98-743-186503
A cynical college professor takes a keen interest in a talented young writing student. Despite good perfomances from both Stanley Tucci (Transformers: The Last Knight, Easy A) and Kyra Sedgwick (Born on the Fourth of July) never truly seems to reach the potentials that it has. The characters are interesting and the perfomances quite good and even charming but the storyline and the pacing? were truly lackluster to begin with and something that we have seen alot of times before of a professor being interested in a student of his (sexual and not) and this movie is no different and even tho the concept is very easy the film makes it like it's a freaking puzzle and Tucci deserved better. (3/10)
jtncsmistad
The games are dirty and the stakes are high in the new drama "Submission". Stanley Tucci (sporting a toupee that doesn't look half-bad) is as solid as ever as Ted Swenson, a dispirited college English lit professor in desperate search of a follow-up to a successful debut novel. Addison Timlin is Angela Argo, an admiring and enigmatic student who persuades her prof to critique chapters of her own go at a book. At first Angela projects as timid and unsure of herself and her craft with Ted. But we watch as she transforms from a seemingly scattered coed into a poised and purposeful young woman, and all the while shrewdly laser-focused on a prize she covets above all else. As the mentorship develops matters inevitably become increasingly complicated between teacher and student. Eventually the relationship makes a volatile shift from nurturing common bond to flashpoint cataclysmic intimacy. Screenplay writer and director Richard Levine presents a dynamic in which it becomes increasingly difficult to discern who is in fact playing whom in the quest for literary fame and fortune.The supporting cast are quite good across the board in "Submission". The multi-gifted Janeane Garofalo-one of my all-time faves-brings a sense of humor and pathos to the story as Magda, professional cohort and personal confidante of Ted who must help determine a wrenching verdict regarding her friend late in the film. The routinely reliable Kyra Sedgwick makes an impression as Sherrie, a dutifully supportive working wife who has her comfy world shaken upside down in the wake of devastating disclosure. The pivotal restaurant dinner scene between husband and wife is powerful stuff from both of these pros. But it is Sedgwick's performance in particular that infuses these emotionally jarring moments with searing sorrow and strength. "Submission" opens in New York City on March 2 and in Los Angeles along with other markets nationwide March 9.
