Gross Misconduct (1993)

“Everyone has secrets.” – Jennifer

Number of Times Seen – 1 (6 Aug 2020)

Brief Synopsis – In order to enact revenge on a teacher who refuses her advances, a college student accuses him of rape.

My Take on it – This is a film that I came across while trying to expand my knowledge of films with Naomi Watts in them.

The story is one that has been broached numerous times over the years and unfortunately, this isn’t able t feel unique enough in all that it does.

The story itself plays out in a strange fashion that doesn’t work well enough since it fails to allow the central debate to become anything more than a ploy.

The film fails to develop the characters on a deeper level and things feel a bit too stereotypical in the way it all is presented.

The lead character played by Jimmy Smits should be more sympathetic especially given the fact that we know he is being framed for a crime he didn’t commit.

They try too hard to make the story feel more simplistic than it truly is and it’s a real shame that they didn’t attempt to try and tackle this story from a more complex and profound way.

Thing might have been more effective if they presenter certain aspects of the story in a more ambiguous way.

Bottom Line – Great cast that just isn’t able to make this story more effective. The story moves along in an strange way that doesn’t make the debate powerful enough. The characters aren’t developed well enough and it’s hard to even care about the lead character who we know is being framed for something he didn’t do. The story tries to simplify this kind of story and it would have been better had they spent more time looking at things with greater depth.

MovieRob’s Favorite Trivia – One of three major theatrical feature films about the subject of sexual harassment that were first released around the time of the early mid-1990s. The movies are ‘Oleanna’ (1994) written and directed by David Mamet and based on his play; ‘Disclosure’ (1994) directed by Barry Levinson and based on the novel by Michael Crichton; and ‘Gross Misconduct’ (1993) directed by George Miller and based on the play by Lance Peters. (From IMDB)

Rating – BAFTA Worthy (6/10)