‘Bad Apples’ review: Saoirse Ronan is a teacher driven to extremes in nervy UK thriller

Dir: Jonatan Etzler. UK. 100mins

Teachers have long struggled with how to handle problem students but Saoirse Ronan’s harried British educator comes up with an unconventional solution in Bad Apples, a dark comedy whose nervy premise proves too difficult to sustain. One can hardly fault the Oscar-nominated actress, who intrigues as an ineffectual instructor trying to cover up a mistake by impulsively kidnapping a troublemaking pupil, only to make matters increasingly worse for herself. But Swedish director Jonatan Etzler, making his English-language debut, cannot keep this daring story plausible enough to offer meaningful insights into our broken education system.

The film’s early promise eventually fizzles

World premiering at the Toronto Film Festival before screening in San Sebastian and London, Bad Apples will appeal to the same audience that enjoyed another portrait of a duplicitous teacher, the 2019 Hugh Jackman film Bad Education, which also unspooled at TIFF. Ronan’s star power should be a selling point, and her fans may be interested to see her play someone outwardly sweet who learns how rotten she can be.

At the West Country primary school of Ashton Brook, Maria (Ronan) flounders in her attempts to corral Danny (Eddie Waller), a violent, foul-mouthed little tyrant who antagonises her and his classmates. After a frightening incident in which he pushes nerdy student Pauline (Nia Brown) over the edge of a staircase, leaving her with a broken arm, Maria is warned by the administration to do a better job policing Danny’s unruly behaviour. The flustered teacher ends up being confronted by Danny away from school one night, the student trying to hit her with an iron pipe. During the resulting skirmish, she temporarily renders him unconscious and, in her panic, drives him back to her house.

Based on the novel by Danish author Rasmus Lindgren, the film presents us with an intentionally farfetched setup in which Maria locks Danny in the basement of her home, buying herself time to cobble together a plan to avoid getting in trouble. Of course, he was the one who assaulted her, but she is terrified that no one will believe her. Etzler’s second feature — he previously directed the 2023 comedy One More Time — wilfully stretches this scenario to extremes, wondering when Maria’s fragile plot will snap.

Ronan initially plays the character as a mousy, depressed pushover but, perhaps predictably, once Maria kidnaps Danny and concocts a series of lies at school, she grows into a more confident, outgoing person. To the character’s astonishment, becoming an inadvertent kidnapper liberates something inside her and she starts to shine as a teacher. Ironically, Maria’s other students thrive without Danny in the classroom, while Danny slowly bonds with Maria at home as she gives him private lessons so he doesn’t fall behind.

Jess O’Kane’s screenplay continually piles on the reasons why Maria’s plan will inevitably implode. Danny’s delivery-driver father Josh (Robert Emms) is desperately looking for his boy, while the police diligently search for clues. Plus, Danny is determined to escape, despite Maria chaining him to the floor (a set-up the film shares with fellow TIFF title Good Boy). Bad Apples builds suspense from the sheer ludicrousness of Maria’s belief that she can evade punishment and, once Maria and Danny develop an unlikely kinship, an unexpected new complication arises in the form of a nosy supporting character.

But the film’s early promise eventually fizzles. The problem is not that Maria’s kidnapping is so poorly thought out — rather, it’s that the filmmakers don’t craft a believable (or wickedly hilarious) chain of events after her outrageous act. Maria’s effective ploys to get closer to Danny, such as bribing him with videogames, don’t seem sufficient balms considering he’s being held against his will. And although Waller convinces completely when Danny is an aggressive terror, the young actor cannot overcome a script that renders his character’s later choices maddeningly arbitrary.

In its warped way, Bad Apples means to be a paean to hardworking teachers who must endure nightmare pupils. Scared of combative parents and abandoned by administrators who don’t have time for their concerns, overtaxed educators can feel as helpless as poor Maria. Alas, those relevant modern-day issues only receive a glib examination in a film that builds to a sarcastic third-act twist that comes across less as bitter wisdom, more mild snark.