Oleanna

Released 1994
Stars William H. Macy, Debra Eisenstadt
Directed by David Mamet

Playwright David Mamet has re-created his much-jawed-about play "Oleanna" for the screen, and like the stage version, the film is little more than a soapbox for Mamet's garrulous mouthpieces -- a pedantic professor and a dense coed. Their miscommunication leads to their downfall, but not soon enough.

The professor, John (William H. Macy), is in his office when a failing student, Carol (Debra Eisenstadt), arrives to discuss her grade. The unsympathetic John offers her a tweedy, self-important monologue regarding the meaning of education, life and so on. "I don't understand you," responds Carol, who ought to appear in the dictionary under "duh"; she walks away more perplexed than ever.

When Carol returns to John's office for Act 2, she has inexplicably transformed herself into a politically correct shrew. John, who is up for tenure, is horrified to learn that she has mistaken his lecture for a come-on and has charged him with sexual harassment. What follows is a WASP male's nightmare that is seemingly orchestrated by the PC's secret police.

Summary by Rita Kempley