Assasination of a High School President
PLOT:
Bobby Funke (Reece Thompson) is a less than popular high school sophomore with a dream to get into Northwestern University’s summer journalism program. Although Bobby claims he’s a great writer, he’s never finished an article for St. Donovan’s School Newspaper. The editor-in-chief Clara, (Melonie Diaz), assigns Bobby to do an article on Paul Moore, the student body president. Bobby attempts to get an interview, but is unable to get a story out of Paul and is bullied by Paul’s friends. Paul is the star of the basketball team and on a game night, Paul takes a fall and injures his knee. The next morning Principal Kirkpatrick (Bruce Willis) discovers the SATs have been stolen from a safe in his office. Kirkpatrick rounds up his “usual suspects” of high school misfits along with Bobby to question them. The group is innocent but Kirkpatrick warns them all to watch their step.
When senior Francesca Facchini (Mischa Barton) solicits Bobby’s help tracking down the set of stolen SATs, Funke uncovers a story. He sets on a large scale investigation and links Paul Moore to the crime. He writes an article pointing the finger at Paul. Kirkpatrick forces Paul to open his locker and the SATs fall out. As a result of his sleuthing, Funke becomes one of the most popular kids at St. Donovan’s. Clara decides to submit Funke’s article to Northwestern which earns Bobby a scholarship to the summer program. Funke wins the respect of everyone from Principal Kirkpatrick to the kid that farts on him in Spanish class and Francesca takes Funke to homecoming. As Funke’s popularity grows so do his suspicions. Paul confronts Bobby, proclaiming his innocence, stating that he got into Cornell but decided to take the test again to see if he could get a better score. Funke begins to wonder if the president really stole the SATs or if he’s just a pawn in a conspiracy.
Funke investigates even deeper into the lives of Paul’s shady friends, all members of the Student Council. He discovers their involvement with drug dealing. The Student Council had actually stolen the SATs along with other tests throughout the year, modifying the marks of the best students to make them doubt their test-taking abilities and turn to the Student Council for performance-enhancing Adderrall and other speed-like medications. Funke says that while Paul wasn’t a part of the scam, group ringleader Marlon Piazza (Luke Grimes) has Paul framed to avoid being caught. Funke also finds out that Francesca lead him along the entire time to keep him from finding out the truth. Francesca and Marlon, step-siblings, are revealed as lovers.
Funke confronts the group in the principal’s office. Marlon threatens to have Funke thrown out the window and frame it as a suicide, but his threat and confession are heard on the school’s intercom system. When Funke entered the room, he secretly turned on the microphone; Funke’s friends save him from being thrown out the window and Kirkpatrick rushes into the office, followed by the student body and Francesca. Francesca attempts to gain Funke’s trust again, only to be shut down and left to deal with Kirkpatrick’s punishment.
REVIEW:
Every now and then, a movie comes along that has the potential to be a truly great film, but just isn’t executed well. This is either due to bad directing, acting, or hat have you. Assassination of a High School President falls into that very category.
My expectations for this film weren’t very high. I mean, this wasn’t a bad film, mind you, but there just wasn’t anything to keep my interest.
The story was a great one, and in the right hands could have been a thing fo greatness, but the filmmaker was not the person to handle this. For some reason, this film noir story was set in a current high school setting. That right there should have tipped me off that the rest of this film was not going to be worth watching.
Most of the cast is unknowns, such as Luke Grimes, Reece Daniel Thompson, Melonie Diaz, etc., who do a great job with their parts that may very well led them to better things.
Bruce Willis’ character, that of a shell-shocked former military man who served in Desert Storm but is now a principal. Not exactly the usual work you’d expect from Willis, but he eats up the screen in each scene he’s in.
Mischa Barton doesn’t work for me as the hottest girl in school. Maybe a popular girl, but that’s stretching it ab it. I always thought she couldn’t act on The O.C., and this just further proved my point. On the other hand, she doesn’t look so anorexic here.
So, what is the verdict for Assassination of a High School President? Lots of potential, good story, decent cast, but none of these things help to make this film worth watching. It is such a bore than you don’t even question why it was indefinitely put on hold from a release in theaters, but instead went direct to DVD. I guess what I’m saying is don’t waste your time.
2 out fo 5 stars
