What Happened to Ally Palmer?: The Good Student (2006)

What happened to Ally Palmer?

So my friend picked up this movie and we planned on watching it together. I thought it was one I had seen the end of on TV. The story was of a girl who they think is dead but turns out to be alive and stays with a mortician. The townspeople thinking she was kidnapped when she stayed on purpose.

This wasn’t that movie. It was very interesting and a bit confusing.

So the film starts off as we follow Mr. Gibb, (Tim Daly) history teacher. He lives a sad and boring life-kids don’t respect him at the high school, he has no car, he lives in a dumpy trailer, life is blah.

His neighbor is super interested in him and does all she can to get his attention, but he ignores her.

One night he is watching TV at home and sees a car commercial for Phil Palmer’s used cars, staring his daughter Ally Palmer (Hayden Panettiere). In American Beauty-like fashion, he begins to fantasize about her and watch her.

One student who particularly hates him is Amber (Sarah Steele). She is constantly calling him a pervert and gross old man, even letting him know that she knows what “kind” of videos he rents from her job, the video rental place in town.

Mr. Gibb becomes so enamored with her he stops her after class one day to compliment her and then goes to the car lot to see her, purchasing the first car he spots. And how does he pay for it? He’s got a bunch of money socked away in a suitcase.

One day, Mr. Gibb is after school getting ready to leave when he witnesses an argument between Ally and her boyfriend, Brett (John Gallagher Jr.). She starts yelling “I can’t believe you did this” and sits in the hall crying. Brett is yelling at her angrily and slams his fist into the locker saying that it is her fault and she made him do this.

After Brett leaves, Mr. Gibb comes over and offers to give Ally a ride home. She goes with him and they talk a bit, she telling him that Brett and her were planning on leaving town together but he lost the money. Mr. Gibb gives her her recent test with an A on it. She kisses him in pleasure and then goes into the house.

What?

When she is inside we hear noises and see a masked man with a bowling bag kidnap her.

I know, for real.

Immediately, everyone suspects Mr. Gibb as he was the last one to admit to seeing her. Her dad doesn’t seem that broken up about it as he uses her disappearance to start a sale and makes a ton of money off her. In fact everyone is. Everyone has been selling things from prom tickets to lemonade to “support the search for Ally”.

People call Mr. Gibbs a ton of names and even spray paint pervert on his trailer. Things get worse when a picture of him and Ally kissing gets printed in the paper. Yes, Amber took a picture and put it out as she hates Mr. Gibbs.

Now this made no sense to me, why wasn’t anyone questioning Amber? What was she doing there the day Ally disappeared. And from the angle it was taken from she had to be hiding in the bushes on Ally’s property or in her house. Isn’t that weird? Why does no one care?

So which one is it?

Mr. Gibbs? Obsessed with Ally-could he have kidnapped her as he wanted her?

Phil Palmer, her dad? Was this all a scheme to make a ton of money?

Brett, the boyfriend? He wants money to escape the town, did he do this for ransom?

And run fast

Amber, the outsider? She has always been jealous ay Ally, is this her revenge? Or was it because she hates Mr. Gibbs so, that she wanted to frame him?

The Janitor? He’s creepy and when they show where Ally is being held, it looks school basementlike.

But there is more to all this people than meets the eye. But which one is the kidnapper? The clues could lead to anyone of them, but which are the red herring and which one the real deal?

***SPOLIER ALERT***

So I totally saw the Amber and Phil relationship from the way they talk in the video store. I thought she was going to be the kidnapper as she was there when the photo was taken, she has to be involved or seen something, but the movie didn’t go that way.

Instead the had Mr. Gibbs be the kidnapper which seemed weird to me. If he was gong to kidnap her why did he take her home? Why didn’t he try to establish a better alibi. How could he quickly change into the kidnapper’s clothes when he just saw her 2 mins before. Where did he even get those clothes when we only see him wear one outfit the entire movie. Most people say it was just on the spot that’s why he used a bowling bag, but if it was just on the spot then how did he have the drugs? You can’t be planned out enough to carry something but then working in the moment at the same time.

I think they wanted to pull one over on the audience and went with that twist when it actually makes no sense, And where was he keeping her? How did no one find her?

I thought the execution of the film was good until the end. It completely fell apart for me.

And what is with the title of the film? She has been struggling and finally earned an A. Is that what it means? In fact we know zero about Ally she is hardly in the film except for Mr. Gibbs lusting after her. Other than that we know nothing about what she likes and dislikes.  Its kinda weird.

Uhhhhhhh

To start Horrorfest VII from the beginning, go to It’s the End of the World: The Birds (1963)

For the previous post, go to They’re Moving From Planet to Planet…After They’ve Consumed Every Natural Resource They Move On…and We’re Next: Independence Day (1999)

For more Hayden Panettiere, go to Don’t F*** With the Original: Scre4m (2011)

For more films with disappearances, go to Have You Seen Megan Hipwell?: The Girl On the Train (2016)