The former husband of the beautiful controversial actress Angelina Jolie, Billy Bob Thorton is 52 years old. However, since his divorce from Jolie, who has been his fifth wife already, the actor seems to have not had anymore the courage to marry someone. But in his latest movie, titled “Mr. Woodcock”, Billy Bob Thorton’s character seems to be looking for a wife, or at least for a special girlfriend, in Susan Sarandon’s character.

Although his acting is not different comparing to his most recent other movies, the actor changes his mimic from knitting his brows to sweetly smiling to Sarandon’s attractive character. But don’t expect to something new from Thorton’s acting, because it won’t happen, despite the fact that the movie’s story could have been quite successful if the actors wouldn’t have struggled so much during their acting. “Mr. Woodcock” is neither a comedy, nor a drama, because of this.

Billy Bob Thorton, 52 years old, plays the role of a high-school gym teacher that scares all his students because he humiliates them and makes them feel bad with any occasion. He was also Seann William Scott’s character’s teacher in the past, but the boy, who has grown up meanwhile and has become a writer, wouldn’t have expected to meet this teacher from hell after many years in his own mother’s company. But this happens, anyway, and his mother, played by Susan Sarandon, will eventually date the terrifying teacher. Seann William Scott’s character can’t believe that his mother is really dating the guy, but there is nothing to be done.

So, the movie’s story, which has been written by two novice writers called Josh Gilbert and Michael Carnes, sounds somehow common but not so bad, after all. It is the actors’ acting that makes the so called comedy so erratic. Still, it is Susan Sarandon’s character that is able to gradually become something more than a ordinary woman finding herself in a sad, though common, situation. She will even express her true, well hidden feelings, through a touching monologue at some point, when we will all find out that the woman’s life has wasted on frustration and misunderstandings. This would explain her dating the sadist teacher, but will her son understand it?

So, while Billy Bob Thorton plays as usually and Susan Sarandon manages to make at least a few steps towards nice acting, Seann William Scott’s character is less coherent than all the others’ characters. John Farley, as the young man’s name is, appears to have had part of a troubled life as a child, partly because of his sadist gym teacher, Mr. Woodcock, who was nothing but a tough crazy hateful man that believed that violence will make his students “real men” someday. As it appears, his technique could be rather understood as a way of making himself feel better.

Anyway, John Farley, the grown up son of the gym teacher’s new date, has at least become famous thanks to his troubled teenage, as he has manage to write a best-selling book, which has been thought by Farley to have helped him letting go the past. But this seems to be an illusion after the young man finds out about his mother’s new date, the hateful gym teacher!

So, although it could have been a respectable movie, “Mr. Woodcock” is likely not to be a hit, as the actors Craig Gillespie directed seem to be at their careers’ starting points.