No Stroll in the Park for Charvet
Single dad Jim Wilkes (David Charvet) is the new teacher in school and school girl Devon (Megan Park) immediately falls for him, developing an all consuming crush on her hunky new maths teacher and volleyball coach. She becomes so consumed with Jim that Devon starts manipulating her way into his life, becoming his volleyball assistant, getting in with his young daughter and a lot more to the point that not only does she become delusional but also psychotic in trying to get Jim to love her.
Think "Fatal Attraction" and "Play Misty for Me" but dumb it down and transfer it to a high school and that kind of sums up "The Perfect Teacher". Yes here we have a made for TV movie which sees a teacher being stalked and terrorized by a female, the difference is the female in question is a student whose crush becomes delusional obsession. Not a bad idea and to be honest Megan Park as the obsessed and delusional Devon is brilliant, scary enough to make any male teacher's balls shrivel up in fear. But unfortunately "The Perfect Teacher" is a TV movie and not only do things become contrived and over the top certain weaknesses in the storyline spoil the believability of what you watch.
Now because "The Perfect Teacher" in truth covers familiar territory for made for TV movies it doesn't really do anything new or different. But what it does it actually does it surprisingly entertaining as we watch Devon's decline into being delusional and obsessed. Along the way we see how she sets about manipulating situations so that Jim starts to rely on her and then we start to experience her fantasies when it comes to being Jim's lover. And trust me when I say when it comes to completely losing it the writers let rip with Devon.
As such it has to be said that Megan Park who plays Devon is terrific and delivers so many different aspects of her character. We have the spoilt bitch who shouts at people, the manipulative cow who manufactures events for her own good and the psychotic bitch which literally makes your balls shrivel up and die. Trust me any male teacher who watches "The Perfect Teacher" will think twice about being nice to a pretty student. Sadly David Charvet who plays the object of her affection, Jim Wilkes, is not so good and almost seems to be cast because he can pull of the hunkiness needed for it to seem believable that a school girl would fall for him. Beyond that the character is weak and unfortunately Charvet's delivery also is, almost soap opera-ish when it comes to the drama of the situation as he inevitably discovers Devon's manipulations.
What this all boils down to is that as TV movies go "The Perfect Teacher" is entertaining and is scary enough when it comes to the psychotic, obsessive behaviour of a school girl with a crush. But it is a movie which is full of contrivances and cliche characters but thankfully Megan Park is brilliant as the psychotic Devon making up for many of the more unbelievable elements.
