Mr. Headmistress Reviews

A distant relative of MRS. DOUBTFIRE and TOOTSIE, this made-for-TV, family-friendly farce dishes out sentimentality and slapstick in equal portions. Recidivist con man Tucker (Harland Williams) is fresh out of jail and full of plans to launch a license-plate scam. Unfortunately, he runs afoul of two felons who resent Tucker's plans to muscle in on their territory. Tucker takes it on the lam, boarding a train and stealing the clothes and the identity of educator and author Naomi Bascombe (Janet Wright), who's en route to a new job at the all-girls Rawlings Academy. Tucker presents him/herself as the new headmistress, and finds he has an instant enemy in Miss Magnum (Katie Sagal), who was passed over for the post. Magnum knows there's something fishy about the ungainly new headmistress, but Tucker's unorthodox approach is a hit with the school's unruly students and he works wonders with the girls' failing hockey team. News of a $500,000 donation from the school's benefactor gives Tucker a new idea: He'll raid the school's cookie jar and move on. Unfortunately, his old enemies recognize him from a newspaper article about Rawlings Academy at the same time that disciplinarian Magnum is doing everything she can to undermine Tucker's authority and the real Naomi Bascombe is trying to convince police that her far-fetched story of identity theft is true. Tucker is suddenly and simultaneously besieged by cops, crooks and Miss Magnum. But almost in spite of himself, he's made a difference in the lives of the students, especially incorrigible Beryl (Shawna Waldron). With $500,000 in traveling money at his fingertips, Tucker must decide whether to follow his criminal instincts or become a new (wo)man. This cotton-candy comedy, a sort of cross between Crossing SOME LIKE IT HOT and DEAD POETS SOCIETY, traffics in hoary homilies about second chances. Overall, the redemptive storyline works better than the gags — stand-up comic Williams looks very uncomfortable in his pantyhose.