Death for teacher

>> Teaching Mrs. Tingle is more fun than high school

by JOANNE LATIMER

How often do you get to see Helen Mirren having a blast? Not very. As detective chief Jane Tennison, she's too busy solving brainy crimes in Prime Suspect. And her last big screen role--as the mother of an IRA hunger striker--was nothing if not grim.

But Teaching Mrs. Tingle changes all that. Mirren can hardly hide her glee, playing a diabolical history teacher who's nursing a grudge against perfect little Katie Holmes (Dawson's Creek). Mirren's presence alone seems to raise the bar, bringing out better performances than anyone would expect. Meaning that Teaching Mrs. Tingle isn't the dumb-ass high school romp that the ads promise. Director Kevin Williamson (Dawson's Creek, Scream) wrote the script based on his own entanglement with an evil teacher, and his pet project has finally been made into a decent high school movie.

Leigh Ann (Holmes) is bucking for a scholarship and her best friend Jo Lynn (Marisa Coughlan) is an aspiring actress bound for Hollywood. They're about to graduate from Grandsboro High, where Leigh Ann needs an "A" in History to walk away with the scholarship. Enter Mrs. Tingle. Eva Tingle's initials are on her briefcase. (Get it? Extra Terrestrial.) She's a heartless bitch who loves to cut down her students and humiliate colleagues. She catches Leigh Ann, Jo Lynn and Luke (Barry Watson) with a copy of the history exam and plans to expose them as cheaters.

Things get out of hand during the kids' apology: Mrs. Tingle ends up at the wrong end of a crossbow. That's when Williamson revs up the action and Mrs. Tingle turns into a fun time. Molly Ringwald has a small part as the ditsy secretary and Michael McKean is the terrorized school principal who can't hide his boozing from Tingle. However, Coughlan steals the show as the entertaining sidekick.

"I can't believe you don't have a TV," Jo Lynn says to Mrs. Tingle. "It's like not having toilet paper." Jo Lynn's puffed-up confidence and bad-girl side makes her a much-needed counterpart to Leigh Ann's goody-goody act.

When Williamson unsettles the story's love triangle and everyone gets their just desserts, it's a surprise to realize that Mrs. Tingle didn't feel like sitting through a long and bitter detention.

Teaching Mrs. Tingle opens Friday, August 20