It might sound odd to describe a film about high school students cheating on a national (and subsequently an international) scholastic exam as a "heist movie" or "caper thriller," but that's how the plot of the stylish "Bad Genius" plays it. (Terrible English title, by the way; its original name was "2B COME WON" -- as in: mission accomplished with a No. 2 pencil, and also "To become one.")
Things you think are happening turn out not to be the case; there are substantial chase sequences with nary a car or a gun in sight, and multiple interrogation scenes that include no cops; thugs are seen beating up one of our heroes on a security cam; and the film's actual cameras move wittily, even during the various exams -- from classroom to nationals to international level.
Lynn, an extremely bright scholarship student whose lower-working-class single father has moved mountains to get her into an exclusive private school, is persuaded by her well-to-do bestie Grace to help with her studies. Gradually, Lynn is cajoled into helping other wealthy but low-performing classmates pass exams for money.
The stakes and the schemes grow ever greater as the teens progress to national college exams and eventually the ultra-prestigious STIC, an international standardized test that enables students to land admittance and scholarships to U.S. colleges. To make her complicated, Oceans-Eleven-style plan work, Lynn will have to catch an international flight from Thailand to Sydney, Australia.
But she can't make it work without Bank, the other scholarship student at the school, who struggles to help his invalided mother run a laundry. And Bank is opposed to cheating.
Chutimon Chuengcharoensukying, 21 at the time of her film debut in the lead, does an outstanding job with a morally ambiguous character. Though with much less screen time, Chanon Santinatornkul is almost as memorable as her sometime rival, sometime ally, Bank. This is a sharp, smart, and hugely entertaining film that deserves a wide Western audience.
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