Miss Meadows is a rather peculiar thriller film released in 2014. Karen Leigh Hopkins write and directed this film. Katie Holmes plays the title role and is joined by a cast that includes James Badge Dale, Cullan Mulvey, and Jean Smart.
Mary Meadows is a sweet, naive substitute teacher in a small town elementary school. She also keeps loaded gun in her purse for those moments when she encounters those who do not want to act with any courage or kindness. She also has a strange fondness for tap dancing, which I don’t mind. I love watching that kind of thing. She also just shoots people who are obviously a threat to her or the community. The local sheriff has also fallen for her without realizing her more dangerous tendencies. Miss Meadows also meets a more formidable adversary when a recently paroled child molester sets his sights on her.
Now, the basic plot is intriguing enough. The cast seems well chosen, but there are problems with how events unfold. Miss Meadows encounters Mulvey’s creepy pervert, Skyler, and for some reasons gives him fair warning as to her intent should he target any child in her vicinity. That was not a courtesy afforded to the other miscreants she dispatched in the film. This was just a strange movie where some decisions by the characters were just baffling. Also, the climax of the film was a letdown. Holmes seemed to be reasonably good casting for this role, but the writing just didn’t serve her very well. Miss Meadow’s eccentricities were plentiful, but I didn’t find her as fascinating as I would have expected. There is a lot here that I should have enjoyed instinctively, but I was a bit disappointed when it was all over.
I just don’t think this piece lived up to the potential of what was actually a fairly clever story idea.
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