The Good Student is a neat little character study in quiet desperation that is ill served by an illogical and unnecessary twist ending. It's enjoyable and effective enough that you won't mind the poor finish, though, and the twist happens so late that you can really just ignore it and focus on the calm, sedate confidence of this story and its take on small town existence.Ronald Gibb (Tim Daly) is a history teacher who dresses up as Lincoln for class and gets peanut butter sandwiches thrown at the blackboard when his back is turned. Ron is also the sort of man who drives a piece of crap car and lives in a relatively run down trailer, even though he's got a box full of money under his sink. He's also the kind who is oblivious to the attentions of the bowling alley bartender (Paula Devicq) who lives next door but develops an innocent crush one of his hot, young students (Hayden Panettiere).Then that hot, young student disappears and Ron is the last one to see her, bringing him into the sights of both the local cops and the girl's monstrous ass of a father (William Sadler). Ron's also constantly harassed by another smart alec student (Sarah Steele) who thinks she's got this lonely, awkward, older man all figured out and holds him in contempt because of it.The Good Student is about a man who's hiding from his own life, whose unhappiness is leading him into foolish behavior because he won't admit and deal with it. That inner conflict is then crystallized by the external problem of the missing girl and given a structure through which Ron eventually confronts himself and starts acting like a man instead of a hesitant boy. The connection between and inner and outer conflict is a well worn storytelling trope and a lot of low budget indy dramas think they can dispense with such a clichéd dramatic design. They're usually wrong to think that. Conventions become well worn because they work and creators dispense with them at their own peril. Anyone who thinks they're blazing a new narrative trail should remember two things.1. People have been telling stories for thousands of years and it's extremely unlikely you're doing anything that hasn't been done before.2. If you think you are, it's probably because people tried it, found it didn't work and learned not to do it that way.Even after thousands of years, there are those who still bring something new to storytelling. For every one like that, there's a thousand who choke on their arrogant pretension.But while the missing girl mystery gives form to the story of Ronald Gibb, it only concludes with a twist ending that fails the most basic test of such things. The second most basic test is that it make sense and not invalidate what the audience has seen. The most basic test of a twist, however, is that it changes the audience's perception of events. They think the story was one way, then the twist shows them it was another way. Well, these filmmakers could have eliminated their twist or taken it in a completely different direction and it wouldn't have changed much at all about the story of Ronald Gibb. Maybe they're doing something meta with a twist that isn't really a twist and I didn't get it, but I don't think so.Tim Daly is good, Paula Devicq is excellent and both writer Adam Targum and director David Ostry demonstrate a real appreciation and insight toward Ron and his circumstances. Their characters have internal life that usually doesn't conform to the faces they show the world or what they convince themselves they see in the mirror.The Good Student is worth watching, especially if you're not being completely honest with yourself about your own life. If you come across it, give it a look.

Did anyone else think he Gibbs, did it for the money? I thought it was a con he pulled to be able to get the money and that really was where he got all the money in his box. Hes done it before? Where do you think he kept her? It looked like a janitors closet in the school or bowling alley. It never explained why the boyfriend went to pick it but he would have had to be in on it? I thought the wife dying and him getting insurance was a story to tell the cops but he really got the money from doing this before. He gets the ransom and takes off. He took her with all intentions of letting her go after the father pays a ransom that he can collect. When the father doesn't offer a reward he does thinking the father will put up more money that he can collect? That was my feeling.

This movie was very interesting. The movie starts out with a man teaching his class and telling the audience some background information. The whole aspect behind the movie is the event that a teacher has a school boy crush on one of his students,then she gets kidnapped, and he is the one that actually tries to find who the kidnapper is and where Ally is. During this investigation, he finds out some disturbing information about his perverted co-worker, and some other students. He also finds that the father of Ally is more concerned about his business and sex life then he is about his daughter. The students and faculty are all convinced that he has something to do with the kidnapping, and he is questioned and interrogated many times. With some interesting plot twists and and fair storyline, I enjoyed this movie. But, from the title, I would like to say that there was no reason what so ever to have the scene of nudity in it that it did, it was purely disgusting. With that being said, I give this movie a 7/10.

let's get the good stuff out of the way first...the story line and the writing both are amazing... in the hands of a more capable director, this movie could've been an excellent movie.the story has all the elements that could attract a viewer, from the good building of the problem, the attraction, the deliberate misguiding to the twists at the end. (but no comedy whatsoever)..but it was really really really bad directed, and you can notice that from the very first shot of the film. a summer trained director trying his luck, and thinking that having a star like Hayden Panettiere can sell the movie - which i don't know why she agreed to do the movie in the first place?? being that she's totally in her prime...there are some characters in the movie that were in it only for the purpose of the felling of an empty 5 minutes or something, there are characters that appeared in the beginning of the movie, and it was set in my mind that this character will play an important rule in the story line, but suddenly i didn't see that character again!!!!overall, it was below medium, and really what a sham, it could've been something really good.my vote is 3 out of 10