Teeth (2008) Movie Review

This is a film that caught my attention because of the buzz it created at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival. I heard great things about it and anticipated it more than anything else coming out of Park City. Then I finally saw Teeth and my hopes and dreams disappeared. As much as I wanted to love it, I found it hard to like it.

I don’t know if it was Mitchell Lichtenstein’s directorial debut that ultimately sullied the film or if it was the script, or the acting, or a combination of all the aforementioned. All I know is that this film did not deliver in the way that I hoped such a unique story would.

The tone starts out in the right direction with a very ominous opening over seemingly normal images of a power plant and a small town. Robert Miller’s score is absolutely brilliant with its playful and imaginative sweeps and perfectly fitting tones. Then we get a short disturbing scene in a children’s play pool where a young kid sticks his hand under water while playing a game of “I’ll show you mine if you show me yours” with his soon-to-be step-sister. He screams and his finger is bleeding. On with the show.

Fast forward a number of years and Dawn (Jess Weixler), the now official step-sister, is in high school and she’s fighting hard for abstinence by being the most prolific member of a local chastity group. These are some of the better scenes in the film because the group seems more like a cult that is brainwashing young minds to recite scriptures and sayings rather than think for themselves, preventing them from understanding what they are saying and why they are saying it. It becomes very comical and develops an interesting piece of satire that should have been dwelt on a little more, especially after the great scene later on where Dawn is seemingly exiled. Instead, the plot wavers and Dawn falls for a new boy, Tobey (Hale Appleman), who has joined the group. Again, the awkwardness between them at first is very subtle and strongly entertaining. The funny little allusions to the main tension that the audience is ultimately waiting for are well done but almost a little too much at times. The film feeds off that though so it works.

Dawn and Tobey decide that they are going to break the rules and be alone together although they both know there is a strong sexual attraction. They go to a natural pond and kiss a little, then touch a little. Before you know it, you’re watching a rape. But right when you are the most disturbed, you start laughing because there is a bloodied partial penis lying on the ground and a poor rapist high schooler screaming his head off. It is very awkward to laugh during a rape, very awkward. But I liked that the film forced me into awkward situations, such as these, because I was able to experience feelings I don’t usually get a chance to. And to tell you the truth, a plethora of gored penises on screen was even funnier than I anticipated. It still had me laughing when Dawn went to visit Dr. Godfrey (Josh Pais). Maybe it’s because he did a spectacular job or maybe it was him hilariously screaming “Vagina Dentata” after having his fingers bitten off by a toothed vagina. This is a very disturbing scene at first—makes you very uncomfortable. But then it turns hysterical. Again, an awkward scene that was very different from the norm.

So yes, there are some solid scenes but it never goes beyond that to become a interweaved whole. The acting is good. John Hensley, as Brad, along with Pais and Weixler do a stand-up job. It doesn’t all work though; it doesn’t flow. Everyone is just good in their own scenes and when they are the main focus. There’s not really any chemistry that allows the scenes with multiple characters to really shine. Although the dialogue is very smart and well crafted, it’s not enough.

The second half of the film really loses its way. It more or less becomes some kind of female slasher movie trying to hide its identity. If it had just gone gung-ho in this direction and had a clear focus, it probably would have worked. Teeth seems like it was too scared to commit in any one direction and therefore gets lost. I don’t even know how to label this film. Comedy—maybe. Horror—perhaps but not really. Dramedy perhaps? Films don’t necessarily need labels but they need a focus.

Teeth was just too muddled and confused to get to where it needed to be. It’s obvious that this is the work of a young director who got excited about a new idea but was unable to take it in the right direction. The unevenness in tone is too much of a burden to ever really let the viewer get sucked in. The good parts aren’t enough to pull the film together as a tight whole. Lesson learned: sometimes the things you build up only let you down.