"The Tutor" dares to be more than a "...from Hell" stalker thriller but doesn't quite satisfy

The Tutor (2023)

A tutor believes his rich student to be infatuated with him and bent on derailing his happy life. From that setup (as written and how it plays out on screen), “The Tutor” signals what kind of movie it will be or could be. That is to say, a tawdry, ‘90s-style “…from Hell” stalker thriller that might have been titled “Obsession” or “Obsessed” (again). Sophomore feature director Jordan Ross and writer Ryan King, however, begin with some amusing social satire and then blur the line between protagonist and antagonist, as well as challenge our allegiances. These are daring choices, but in doing so, “The Tutor” reveals itself to be less trite than it lets on and still not entirely satisfying. 

Ethan Campbell (Garrett Hedlund) is a professional tutor for privileged suburban kids who want to get into Ivy League schools without doing the work. He lives in New York City with his girlfriend Annie (Victoria Justice), and they’re about to have their first child. When he is requested by name for a weeklong tutoring job that pays $2500 a day under the table, Ethan immediately takes it. He gets a private car that takes him to a palatial mansion and gets shown to his room in a guest house (complete with a pool table) by a butler. His 17-year-old student, Jackson (Noah Schnapp), however, seems brilliant as if he doesn’t even need Ethan’s help when taking a mock SAT test. There’s also something off about Jackson, who’s tightlipped about his own family and somehow knows Ethan isn’t married but having a baby. Jackson’s sketchy cousin (Jonny Weston), who’s summering at Jackson’s place, also keeps hanging around and getting drunk by the pool with young women to tempt Jackson. At some point, Ethan believes Jackson to not only be psychologically unwell but dangerous and ready to falsely accuse Ethan of inappropriate behavior. How far will the student’s obsession go to ruin Ethan’s life, and why?

Garrett Hedlund solidly plays Ethan as a little slippery but mostly sympathetic when his life is made a living hell. He had an affair in the past, but Annie has his permission to keep a tracker on his phone. Ethan also refuses to be anything like his racist alcoholic father when he drinks. Having been touted as “tutor-famous,” Ethan seems to be good at his job and knows where to draw the line with his students. When he has dinner with Annie and another couple in a restaurant in the city, Ethan ends up going off about Jackson after a few too many drinks. Can you guess who conveniently pops up standing at their table, hearing almost every word yet keeping his cool? It must be an unwritten rule in Hollywood that child actors, in order to cross the threshold and show their range, must play a “bad seed” (hey, Alicia Silverstone and Macaulay Culkin). Branching out from playing Will Byers on “Stranger Things,” Noah Schnapp proves he’s at least up to the task of navigating different character modes from aloof to vulnerable to hostile and back. As more is revealed about Jackson, the script plays too much of a game, bending over backwards in ways that make the teenage character perhaps too convincing of an actor. Also, adjusting to a darker genre than we’re accustomed to seeing her in, Victoria Justice is appealing in what is mostly a thankless role as the pregnant, stay-at-home-to-unpack Annie. 

Entirely watchable but finally too clever for its own good, “The Tutor” goes one way and then goes another. The first route is formulaic but still compelling. When the film begins asking too much of the audience to believe certain plot turns, it’s the second route that doesn’t really work and feels like a cheat more than a subversion. Not all of the details add up, like how a pivotal character is able to orchestrate something at a certain location or convince others in his circle to do certain things. Dancing around key reveals makes it sound very vague, but nothing is what it seems and characters are later seen in a different light. If nothing is what it seems, “The Tutor” makes it harder to care once we realize the filmmakers care more about pulling the rug out from us than presenting much character consistency. 

Grade: C 

Vertical is releasing “The Tutor” (92 min.) in select theaters on March 24, 2023.