It is no coincidence that the same writer who creates the WB’s “Dawson’s Creek” script was the writer for “Teaching Mrs. Tingle.” After all, both star the same lead female (Katie Holmes) and both feature the same style of acting.

The only difference is, “Teaching Mrs. Tingle” tries to be a little more scary.

Holmes and her affiliates are all supposed be in high school, though only one of the three look young enough, just like the show. Also, all of the students have highly developed vocabularies for their supposed age, just like the show.

If you look past all of that, you have a movie with some great acting and a huge attempt at a good story, but one that ends up lacking believability.

Leigh Ann Watson (Holmes) is the smartest girl in school. But since her family is poor, the only ticket out of her town is a scholarship given to the person with the highest grade point average. Leigh Ann is in a race with one other person.

When Leigh Ann is in the gym with her friends, Luke (Barry Watson from “7th Heaven,” another WB show) and Jo Lynn (Marisa Coughlan), Luke pulls out a copy of Mrs. Tingle’s (Helen Mirren) final exam. The two argue over it for a little while, and Luke ends it by sticking the test in Leigh Ann’s bag.

Mrs. Tingle then comes into the gym to find what she assumes is the smartest girl in school cheating. She grabs the test and takes it to the principal, who is gone for the day.

That night, the three students decide to go over to Mrs. Tingle’s house to try to convince her that Leigh Ann had nothing to do with the whole situation.

Things get a little out of hand, and Mrs. Tingle ends up getting grazed and knocked out by an arrow from a crossbow. The three students start panicking and decide the best thing to do is take her upstairs, tie her to the bed and keep her there until they can convince her that Leigh Ann was not involved.

Good plan … not.

This is where the story starts to become less and less realistic. You can almost hear the director trying to convince himself that this is a realistic story. The characters in the movie constantly are trying to justify their situation to help make it more believable. Sorry, no.

The group continues the charade with predictable things happening one after another until an all-too-expected ending leaves you with unanswered questions and a bitter taste in your mouth.

The movie never actually tells the story of why Mrs. Tingle is so mean and bitter toward everyone. And it never develops the characters beyond what you can figure out by looking at their clothes.

Though the story isn’t great, this was probably the best way to portray it.

Mrs. Tingle does a great job convincing Jo Lynn to turn against Leigh Ann and Luke. Leigh Ann and Luke actually hook up late in the movie, the only purpose of it being to see Holmes in a bra, since the scene led nowhere and never had any closure.

Mirren portrayed the role very well as an evil, manipulative bitch who you love to hate. Her evil eye, her complete lack of respect for anyone and her ability to push people’s buttons with every word that comes out of her mouth shows that even cheesy movies can have great acting.

The most surprising performance was given by Coughlan, though. Her believability as a slacker student who cares more about men and her breasts than her future was very solid. Despite one time where she reenacted a scene from “The Exorcist,” she was fun to watch. Definitely look for her in the future.

Watson was pretty bland, not so much his acting, but the fact that his character has been done so many times. It seems he’s always playing the mystery guy who every girl wants because, even though he doesn’t give a damn about anything on the surface, he is really a sweetheart on the inside. It’s time for movies to start making up new types of characters.

There are times in the movie when you must constantly remind yourself that you are not watching “Dawson’s Creek,” since Holmes plays the same character. She does it well, but it doesn’t cost $5.50 to watch “Dawson’s Creek.”

And the soundtrack contains a song from the “Dawson” house band, Eve 6, making you wonder why they just didn’t make this a weekly episode instead of spending all the money on a movie.

Actually, there was an episode with a psycho teacher. Damn.

2 stars

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Kyle Moss is a sophomore in journalism and mass communication from Urbandale.