You know, there are a lot of excellent movies that get passed over because those recommending them hadn't been seeing them from the right angle. It's like this candy I was eating the other day: honey roasted peanuts in buttercrunch toffee; yum, yum. Inside the main wrapper were three individually wrapped little bars that were delicious. I was munching on them one at a time while waiting for a bus. I was looking for the bus to come as I threw away the wrapper and popped the third one into my mouth. Yuck! I had neglected to remove the inner wrapper. Tasted like tinfoil.

That's sort of like the opinions you'll get from those who viewed Mr. Woodcock from the angle it was portrayed at: Successful book author returns to home town to discover his mom dating an erstwhile gym teacher he had issues with. So what? The material doesn't lift itself above the mundane all the way through. Good acting doesn't quite rescue it. Give it a thumbs-down.

But—and this is a big but—what if we take it from a different direction? Let's look at it from the perspective of a lonely widow who is finally dating "Mr. Right" only to be interfered with by her grown son who can't stand her dating anyone at all. This Mr. Woodcock she is dating was his 7th grade gym teacher whose methods, while admittedly quirky for gym class, nevertheless reflect an all-too-familiar reality of the lessons one learns when starting to date. And that best-selling book of the son, Letting Go: How to Get Past Your Past, is a credible reflection of a popular book that's troubling today's scene: I Kissed Dating Goodbye, by Joshua Harris, where he tries to escape the influence of dating. Then the movie is about dating itself and the genius of the plot outshines even the good acting.

Let's take the opening scene. Some boys in gym class are messing around with a basketball waiting for class to start. Bell rings. Boys line up. Gym teacher—played well by Billy Bob Thornton—enters the gym, blows his whistle, and they all start running in place. Okay, dating requires discipline, but then a lot of activities require discipline. No particular favorite analogy yet.

A little lecture from the coach: He picks up a basketball and asks, "What is this?" No response, so he flings it at a boy, hits him. "Good hands, Netterman. One lap." The boy goes off at a run.

Am I off on my analogy? Tell me, were you never penalized on a date for your hands not being "good"? I thought so.

Woodcock then tells them it's just a round sack of air unless they're trained in its use and skilled in its art. That's what I was trying to say in my book reviews of I Kissed Dating Goodbye, that dating in itself is just some time set aside for a couple to be together, unless they're competent in what they are doing, and then it can be very beneficial. Incompetence can lead to criticism, but it's not that round sack of air that's at fault.

The lecture continues with him saying that to master basketball it's not necessary to know how to spell or to know the capital of Montana. Watson, for showing off his knowledge of the capital, is given a lap to run.

Reminds me of the nerd factor. One can be penalized on a date for spouting off unnecessarily. I should know.

Oates is given a lap to run because coach can hear his wheezing. Run it out, he tells him. I'm pretty sure that's not the cure for asthma, but I also know we get penalized for our annoying habits on dates, however much they are beyond our control. (Later in life Oates had minor surgery to help him with it.)

The coach is trying to foster strength in body and mind.

Next we get to "Fat John." He's wearing street clothes in gym. Coach reprimands Farley for not wearing regulation gym shorts and gym shirt. That they were stolen seems to be no excuse, he shoulda been wearing "appropriate attire." He is embarrassed by being made to change in front of everybody. When he doesn't have the quarter for the rentals—that having been stolen too—, he has to go do chin-ups in his underwear.

This is really cruel-sounding for a gym class, but we are also embarrassed and penalized for not wearing appropriate attire on dates. There is no excuse. If we're not sure, we should ask in advance.

Coach criticizes "wheezy" as he's doing his lap, gives them a lecture on "personal responsibility," and asks them if they want to be losers. Finally, he ridicules Farley for not being able to do even one chin-up. "Don't even think of letting go," he tells him.

Pan to the future and we see a grown John Farley—played well by Seann William Scott—on tour with his best-selling book titled Letting Go: How to Get Past Your Past. Yeah, you wish. He's got a publicist named Maggie, played to the hilt by Amy Poehler. In a movie cast with great performances, hers excels. She is the consummate "b*tch," so named by a "Diva of talk show hosts." I'm not saying that women deserve that sobriquet any more, but in the outlandish roles we find in movies, she qualifies.

She (reluctantly) gets him sent back to his home town of Forest Meadow, Nebraska, to receive the key-to-the-city award at their annual corn carnival. He arrives home, greets his mom, and is re-introduced to his old gym teacher Jasper Woodcock who is himself up for an award for best teacher of the year. Mom says she's been dating him for five months, and thus the stage is set.

Practically the whole rest of the movie is taken up by a long protracted "p*ss*ng contest" between the two men—I don't know how else to describe it. John explains to his mom Beverly that Jasper isn't nice, that he treated his pupils mean all the time. If Joshua Harris could personify the meanness, lack of niceness, he found in the high-school dating scene, that personification would be Mr. Woodcock. Harris advocated a different approach, that rather than subject oneself to all the indignities of dating, one should select a mate from social circumstances where people are nice—like in church—and with the advice of his respected parents, etc. That approach of breaking with a past of dating to help in mate-selection/marriage-preparation is reflected well in the movie book Letting Go which people love, as they love I Kissed Dating Goodbye.

The plot thickens. John reconnects with an old crush Tracy Detwiler, but their first date convinces her he needs to sort out some issues first. But Beverly and Jasper were able to decide to get engaged after five months of dating. See, dating works.

Okay, I should mention something about all the sex Jasper is having with John's mom. First of all, there are no secrets in a small town, it was public knowledge, which troubled John, as we may well imagine. But if you look a little at the cultural background of the story, it is easy to see why it was written this way. You know how in the Bible we are told to treat "the elder women as mothers; the younger as sisters, with all purity" (1 Timothy 5:2). Most men, I'm afraid, and some ministers don't live up to that standard. Joshua Harris is a minister who does, as well as anyone, I imagine, so when he complains in his book about a lack of purity and goes about recommending the elimination of dating as a solution, then we have to include the purity issue in the movie that answers his book, and the gym teacher—who exemplifies the lessons in dating—having sex with John's mom is just the way to introduce this issue.

In the end Beverly has to ask John to consider her happiness. She hasn't had anyone until now from the time his dad died. His interference was standing in the way of her happiness. John had intervened before with men she'd tried to date. Ministers have been known to place obstacles in the path of a woman finding and marrying someone who makes her happy. I sometimes wonder if men of the cloth have their (our—I'm also an ordained minister) priorities right. And while Jasper as a rule doesn't apologize—because apologies are for criminals and screwups, and he's neither—, he's willing to apologize for boasting to John about "nailing your mom."

While we are considering lessons, let me mention the one in the locker room where John felt he didn't need a shower. Mr. Woodcock tells him they're not French, he should shower because he'll be riding in a car with someone. The lessons on dating go on and on.

Even into old age; the senior citizens are made to exercise in the pool. Woodcock says they're just old, not pathetic; they enjoy a challenge. Could be said about senior dating too.

Then there was old Polumbo, a couch potato whom Mr. Woodcock forced to get into the swim of things, over the vigorous objection of John. But this is just the fault I found with Harris's anti-dating book, that he seemed to want to remove all risks from life, risks we should be well able to handle. Personally, I was happy to see Mr. Woodcock throw his copy of John's book into the fireplace for the "pile of cr*p" it was.

Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Good Date Movie
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 13 and Older