Fantastic Fest '08 Review. The Substitute.
Ole Bornedal’s The Substitute plays with the idea that most kids go through that adults are weird and don’t take their complaints seriously and their teacher is either, crazy, evil or and an alien. In this case the teacher in question is all of the above.
Alien invasion films are a dime a dozen but this one takes a different route with a single alien invading a small town in Denmark, taking the form of a substitute teacher and tormenting the class of kids who have to stick together to fight off this other worldly menace.
Carl is the moody quiet kid in class, grieving the loss of his mother, he shuts the outside world off, unable to handle the fact that his mother is not coming back. He’s basically a loner that the bullies make fun of and he goes to a school psychologist who has a kind of creepy interest in Carl’s dreams. So of course when Carl discovers that the new teacher is indeed an alien trying to gather humans for consumption they think he’s crazy. But he soon convinces them of the truth and then they have to try to get their parents to believe their story, which is far from easy since the teacher has a way of seeming loving and trustworthy to the adults. When a road trip to Paris comes up the kids know that they will never come back, especially when they make a detour to a chicken farm where they are to be shipped to the alien’s home planet for harvesting.
It’s strange to see the same director who brought us a dark tale of murder and necrophilia all those years ago handle a kid’s adventure film in the same vein as The Goonies and The Monster Squad with such happy go lucky glee. If I was the same age as when I saw The Explorers and the aforementioned adventure films I would have loved it instantly and I can clearly see how kids would respond to a film like this but I can also see how overly protective parents might respond to a film that makes fun of children’s physical appearance and has them use the “F” word on more than one occasion. It’s a film that sadly Hollywood would not do without watering it down considerably and end up talking down to its viewer. Since this film is European it gives us a glimpse of how these films were before the all mighty PC movement rose from its fiery pit brandishing the clippers that have neutered most if not all of US mainstream cinema.
What really works in this film is the humor and the performances. Paprika Steen really shines as the Alien invader and the cast of kids are all likeable and never get on your nerves with being overly cutesy and way to sophisticated for their age. There is a whimsical feeling over the movie that I really liked but the third act suffers from having the film blow its load a bit too soon early on, making one anticipate an all out monster action which never comes sadly. But the overall effect of this film is a good one and it’s a film that I highly recommend.
