Stanley Tucci plays a professor at a mediocre college (the way his character would let you believe, it's barely one step up from a trade school) that he teaches at in between gigs as a sometime author (and for the "medical insurance") who is dissatisfied at where he's ended up at this point in his life. Student Angela seems to admire the bored professor, and when she catches his ear, timidly asks him to review chapters of a book she's written to get his feedback. Unbeknownst to him (and initially, us), she is manipulating him from the get go. He doesn't even necessarily develop any feelings for her (he states later he was sidelined by a notion of adolescent romance), but he does get sucked into her doe eyes and fawning admiration of his opinion - until it doesn't suit her needs anymore. His distaste for the daily minutia of dinner parties and clueless students allow him to let his guard down, pulling him towards a clumsy tryst in Angela's room that is satistying for neither, except she now uses this new level of intemacy to essentially harangue him into showing her chapters to his agent/publisher. When this produces a dead end for Angela, she of course accuses him of sexual harrasment, at which point you really learn how twisted this girl really is and who she'll hurt to get what she wants. The supporting roles of Tucci's vanilla wife and distant daughter are apparently part of the story to show how much the professor has risked, but the daughter is so briefly added to the story and so unlikable, and the wife so bland, that their presence isn't even necessary. It's mostly a story about how when we feel lost in our life, we can be easily manipulated, especially when we're unsure about who we are and what we're willing to do in order to capture a glimpse of who we want to be.
Review of Submission
