Bad Teacher

Directed by Jake Kasdan. Starring Cameron Diaz, Eric Stonestreet, Lucy Punch, Justin Timberlake, Jason Segel, Molly Shannon 16 cert, gen release, 91 min

THE TITLE nods towards Bad Santaand the film's premise is undeniably similar. Once again, a figure of trust is portrayed as a drunken, irresponsible layabout. The protagonist is the very last person you would trust with your youngest and dearest.

Unfortunately, Jake Kasdan’s film does not quite have the courage of its convictions. Cameron Diaz is convincingly dissolute as the title character. Nobody is better suited to toppling off the highest heels into the deepest vat of malt liquor. But, from her opening burps, you just know she’s eventually going to soften and do something like the right thing.

To that point, there is much to enjoy. Diaz plays a hard-living gold digger who, after being dumped by her millionaire fiance, returns to teaching as a way of financing a boob job. She rips off the kids’ charity carwash. She smokes dope in the parking lot. Eventually, our naughty heroine learns that a substantial cash prize is awarded to the class that scores the highest marks in a state test. Initially, she opts for intense tutoring. Then she decides to cheat.

You certainly couldn’t argue that the film offers a positive portrayal of women in the work place. Cameron’s main rival (talented Brit Lucy Punch), a hard-working zealot, is as infuriatingly smug as the protagonist is mindlessly dissolute. But the picture is – in theory at least – a celebration of poor behaviour and Diaz’s game enthusiasm is something to behold.

Though the ending is a bit tepid, the film does, ultimately, have its heart in the right (that’s to say wrong) place. All the good-thinking, Christian characters – notably an amusing Justin Timberlake – spew tedium and condescension from every pore. If you seek propaganda in favour of dissolute living then look no further.