Pros: An Excellent Film Featuring Top-Notch Performances from Jeff Daniels & Jena Malone
Cons: At Times, Predictable & Brings in Some Moral Questions.
The Bottom Line: "Cheaters" is an excellent, hard-nosed film on school corruption from John Stockwell featuring tough performances from Jeff Daniels and Jena Malone.
Plot Details: This opinion reveals major details about the movie's plot.
With more young actors in the 18-24 age group emerging, there are those who are in it to be stars while there are others who want to bring in some integrity. Already with actors like Jake Gyllenhaal, Kirsten Dunst, Natalie Portman, Kieran Culkin, and Elijah Wood, the roles for younger actors are definitely becoming interesting for people in that age group. Yet if there’s one actress that is surpassing them on many levels, it’s Scarlett Johansson, who just received high praise for her performance in Sofia Coppola’s “Lost in Translation”. Approaching age 19, Johansson is already at the moment the most talented actress of her age group. At a close second right now who is a day older than Johansson is Jena Malone.
Since breaking through in 1996 with her film debut in Angelica Huston’s “Bastard Out of Carolina”, Malone has been an actress filled with immense promise and like Johansson, maturity beyond her years. After doing standout roles in movies like “Stepmom”, “Contact”, “For the Love of the Game”, and “The Book of Stars”, Malone seemed likely to be a promising child star. Unfortunately, Malone wasn’t going to play the child star roles as she kept on challenging herself as an actress with more mature roles in 2001’s “Life as a House”, “The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys” and the cult-masterpiece “Donnie Darko”. In 2000, Malone made headlines when she sued her mother for legal emancipation at the age of 15 over money squandering and won. That same year, Malone made her first transition into mature roles with the HBO made film “Cheaters”.
Based on the scandal of the 1994-1995 academic decathlon in Chicago, filmmaker John Stockwell wrote and directed the film about a teacher and fellow students from a lower-class school in Chicago cheating their way to win a decathlon in order, to get their school some money and students a chance to get ahead in life. In the process, moral issues over cheating come to play as the film begins to reveal the hypocrisy over class and political systems that comes abroad. Starring Jeff Daniels, Jena Malone, and Paul Sorvino, “Cheaters” is a very brash, in-your-face drama about doing the right thing.
The film begins with a bleak, drab look into the ghetto, working-class area of Chicago at Steinmetz High School. The students aren’t really there to learn while the teachers don’t really seem to care about teaching either. Everything is all depressing and hopeless as the only thing people seem to care for is a sports team that wins. For school principal Constantine Kiamos (Paul Sorvino), he wishes there was something more for his school to have some pride on. The only teacher that really cares about is Dr. Plecki who does everything in his power to teach the students literature but many don’t really care. The only student that seems to be listening to Plecki is a young sophomore Jolie Fitch (Jena Malone). Jolie and Plecki often talk after class since she wants to learn and he wants to teach. Kiamos calls for a meeting about getting the school’s spirits raised a bit as he decides to select Plecki, for the third time, to head the academic decathlon team.
Plecki takes the job but without a lot of support from the school staff. Plecki seeks Jolie to scout some other students who might be helpful in the decathlon. After a posted board for a decathlon meeting, some students show up, only for the free food and as a result, only seven decided to stay to be in the team. Math wiz Darius Bettus (Luke Edwards), Matt Kur (Blake Heron), Jolie, Paul Kurgan (Dan Warry-Smith), two immigrant students Dominik Wesolowski (Dominik Podbielski) and Agnieska Maryniarcyzk (Anna Raj), and the abrasive, rat-face Irwin Flickas (Dov Tiefenbach). They study day and night for the decathlon and sometimes at Plecki’s home with his mother (Lenka Peterson). Plecki and the gang knew they have to work hard and sacrifice if they want to make it in decathlon, even if they have to go against the 9-time state champions Whitney Young, a school in the mid-upper class of Chicago.
On the day of the regional decathlon, Plecki urges all the kids to do their best but of course, they have to go face-to-face with the overconfident Whitney Young team. In the end, Steinmetz won fifth and was able to qualify in the state finals but lost of course, to Whitney Young. The kids weren’t pleased with the fifth place finish as they realize no matter how hard they study, how much sacrifice they make, they’ll never beat them because of the school system that emphasizes on putting more money on the top schools rather those that needed the money.
Plecki knew they have to work hard for the state finals but understands that some of the students have jobs too to help their families in their working class environment. He also decides to demote Irwin because of his scores were lower than Dominik in one subject that upsets him. One day, Matt meets a friend who knew where the state finals test is going to be in exchange for $20. Matt gets the copy and tries to hide it until Irwin drops in to take the test and show it to Dr. Plecki. Plecki shows the students the test but wonders if they wanted to cheat. Everyone is fine but Agnieska, a devout Catholic, isn’t sure if she wanted to do this since she knows cheating is wrong. Plecki, who had rehearsed his speech on cheating for anyone uncomfortable about it, shows Agnieska about the harsh realities of the world and she decides to cheat. They find all the answers with help from books and everything and even program calculators, beepers, or anything to display answers but Irwin wants to be back in the team but Plecki had something for him in mind.
On the day of the state finals, all the students get ready but Plecki wanted them not to get all the answers right or else something would be suspicious. Irwin pretends to be a judge for the speech part of the decathlon as the gang uses everything including shoes and gum to get answers. In the end, Steinmetz wins the state finals upsetting Whitney Young, as their coach wants to call the decathlon board over any suspicion of cheating. Principal Kiamos is happy over the win as it gives the school some newfound spirit and confidence but Irwin however, isn’t happy since he didn’t get to share in the glory of the win. He ends up writing an essay over the cheating in English and it gets the attention of the English teacher who sends it to Kiamos but Irwin later said it was just fictional so he wouldn’t get into anymore trouble but he does with the decathlon gang.
The academic decathlon board becomes suspicious of the high-test scores Steinmetz produces and of course, Plecki is upset along with the kids. Even after watching “Stand & Deliver”, the kids refused to take a re-test and Kiamos wanted to sue the school board over what’s going on. Irwin meanwhile, decides to present his essay to the Chicago papers and all hell breaks loose. Plecki gets suspended while the kids are looked at like germs over what happened and more suspicion arises. The entire decathlon gang wanted to say they didn’t cheat while Plecki is forced to lay low and of course when the gang is forced to meet investigators, one of the kids got tricked into confession and they lose all their medals and trophies as Plecki wonders what kind of futures they’ll have.
While Stockwell’s script and direction is top-notch (still better than his work for “crazy/beautiful”, “Blue Crush” and the screenplay to “Rock Star”), it does have a few flaws in the film. At times they’re predictable and the moral standout can be a bit much for some but again, there’s a point to all of this. Well, yes cheating is wrong. Cheating on your spouse is wrong and of course, we have a very unpopular president who just cheated the previous election. As for cheating tests just to get ahead, well that depends. If you’re from a working class section in a city and you know that the school system is very geared towards an upper class school, then cheat your through the system. Even if those kids didn’t cheat and got those high score, of course the upper class and powers-that-be would be b*tching about it. What Stockwell did was present a question of morality though a class system and high-government powers.
While each of the kids in the film do standout on their own, it’s Jena Malone who shines the most in the entire cast. Though she was only 15 when she played that role, she presents a mature, intelligent approach to her character while not acting like a child. Just act like a regular teenager in the film and a smart one I might add. Jeff Daniels is always a flawless actor who can play a character that is the moral of the film as he struggles with being a teacher and in a very touching scene where he argues with his mother about his late father. Paul Sorvino also stands out as a principal who wants what’s best for the school while trying to fight the system that is keeping his school from being shut down.
“Cheaters” is a film that excels with its strong presentation over school and class systems led by the top-notch performances of Jeff Daniels and Jena Malone. John Stockwell deserves credit for bringing a film that brings more questions than answers about cheating and class systems. It’s a movie that is hard-nosed and dead-on in its subject. Though “Stand & Deliver” was a better film that presented itself on class and school systems, “Cheaters” though does standout on the film for its morals. Fans of Jena Malone will indeed find this film as one of her essential performances. “Cheaters” in the end, is an excellent film about trying to get ahead and destroy the system that’s keeping you down.
In a major academic contest against affluent Whitney High, the struggling kids of Steinmetz High School know they didn t have a chance. But one teache...More at Buy.com
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