Elijah Wood

Performer for Our Time

The Faculty
(1998)

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The Faculty (1998)
Elijah Wood as "Casey Connor"

Edward C. Patterson, site owner
Annie Graham, copy editor

It’s funny to even say this, but The Faculty may be Elijah Wood’s only foray into the child-star to teen-star venue. Flipper, Oliver Twist, Deep Impact and The Ice Storm were all films with challenging roles for Elijah; roles that had him play against-type; roles with character arcs and opportunities to develop the character using his veteran skills. The Faculty however gave him the keystone character in a Hollywood SciFi formula, where he was supposed to be The Geek and develop into The Geek Hero, a bit like The Revenge of the Nerds. He was also part of a stellar line-up of character actors, old-timers like Bebe Neuwirth, Piper Laurie, and Robert Patrick; and newcomers, like Josh Harnett, Jordana Brewster and Salma Hayek.

Elijah does deliver the goods. He’s supposed to be a helpless geek, the "Stephen King geek", and he’s in pain. We first see him getting socked in the nose coming out of the school and then getting his nuts reamed between a lamp post. He doesn’t get this beat up again until Green Street Hooligans. And of course, his pitiful posture in the toilet stall muttering his first screen "fuck," is painful indeed. We see him as a loner on the football field, but also as a smart-ass when he snaps at the coach that he doesn’t think a person should run unless he’s being chased. And that’s about the level that the character gets to for most of the film. He registers various levels of shock on his face, an important element that Elijah certainly can deliver—when Miss Brummel disintegrates in the shower, when he escapes from the faculty lounge and when his parent’s won’t believe his story. Elijah does give us the sense of teenage acne in his growing anger and pushing his Pod People theory. Unfortunately, the script is lame and if we believe him its because we are watching a science fiction film and paid our money to hear such dribble. It would be a few years before the incredible world of Tolkien was brought about by this same actor with lines just as incredible, but crafted for believability. It was during the shooting of The Faculty that Elijah Wood also filmed his history-making audition tape for the role of Frodo Baggins.

I would probably dismiss Elijah Wood’s performance in The Faculty as earning a paycheck (and that he did; the film earned good box office), if it were not for the worst-best scene in the film. I say worst-best scene as it is the most illogical, containing the most pathetic dialog; however, all the acting earns its salt in the garage scene, when the actors turn on each other and sample the scat drug. In the space of five minutes, Elijah Wood gets to break the mold of the geek and fires away with an array of styles as he shows us fear and reluctance (to take the drug), tweaking (as he’s on the drug) and high drama (as he tries and fails to shoot Delilah). The tweaking scene, as it has been dubbed, is worth the price of admission. Elijah’s demonic and childlike, even girlish laughing, his bright face and tooth space smile, is glorious, completely out of character, which is what’s called for. It continues to dominate even when the other actors clang into the ensemble. The effect jolts the audience back into the film and away from the popcorn line.

Of course, Elijah Wood gave up top billing in this film that decided to list everyone alphabetically; but it’s clear at the end, he was the main and pivotal character. As the creature pursues him, it tells him that it feels as lonely and as alien as he does, and offers release. It’s a poignant, even sad moment when Elijah kills the creature and says, "You wouldn’t have liked it here anyway," realizing that he has killed himself; or at least the lonely anti-hero who gets his nose bled and his balls busted. In the final scene, we see him sporting a new hair-do and a new sense of self-assurance. Unfortunately, Elijah got there by way of script, not in his usual character journey.

The best thing to come out of The Faculty is Elijah Wood’s realization that big box office films may not best serve his art and bring his career through the tangled transition of teen-star to adult-star. He has chosen wisely since with low budget, independent films that show his talent and lends weight to other people’s sense of vision—visions he could share. Of course, that didn’t preclude being in at least one blockbuster that we know of, one that helped him grow-up and mature, both as an actor and a person playing a fifty-five year old Hobbit of everyone’s acquaintance. But as Casey his performance was as solid as his paycheck and for many child-star veterans, that would have been satisfaction enough. Just ask most of them as they lurk under rocks in a vast Hollywood wasteland, a wasteland that Elijah Wood has never joined and never will.