REVIEW: Bad Apples - deliciously wicked, horribly funny

It builds and it builds and it builds brilliantly, the blackest of black comedies with the most awkward and uncomfortable of laughs – the every-day tale of a sweet-natured but struggling teacher who accidentally kidnaps the class bully and hides him in her basement.

It’s an outstanding performance from Saoirse Ronan as Maria the teacher but remarkable too from the two contrasting children of the piece… or are they really so different?

Eddie Waller is great as the obnoxious Danny; ditto Nia Brown as Pauline, the irritating goody two shoes who takes an increasingly sinister liking to Maria.

Danny really is a vile little brat. He opens the film by sabotaging the school trip to a cider factory. But then again, he would, wouldn’t he? After all, he is the bad apple of the title – a point the film labours with repeated glimpses of rotting apples.

Danny then follows it up by tossing would-be teacher’s pet Pauline over the banisters and breaking her arm. And then, just when things couldn’t possibly get any worse, poor Maria, idealistic but exhausted, discovers that the very next day Ofsted inspectors are coming – a visit which Danny is sure to wreck.

One thing leads to another. Preposterous implausibility heaps up on preposterous impossibility and somehow Danny ends up conveniently imprisoned in Maria’s basement.

And wouldn’t you know it, without his malign influence, the class starts to flourish, pulling together, thoroughly won over by Maria’s easy charm and clear gifts as a teacher. Oddly – and how did she get him to wear a harness? – Danny also starts to flourish, alternatively hostile and strangely willing down in her basement, finally very nearly knuckling down a few lessons.

But then the film really does take a curious twist as a new power dynamic starts to emerge. Pauline starts to suspect what’s happening, a lovely piece of acting. Nia Brown’s knowing expressions are to die for, and suddenly it’s Pauline who’s in control. Towards the end there’s a brilliant scene at a parent teacher meeting. Just wait for the wonderful comment from the PTA chairman as all starts to dissolve around Maria.

It’s wonderfully done, utterly silly but still hugely entertaining. This is a real gem of a film which brilliantly maintains conviction in itself – no matter how daft it gets.

The performances from Eddie Waller and Nia Brown are terrific, and Saoirse Ronan inevitably shines as the desperate teacher in the thick of it all.