Gross Misconduct is a 1993 thriller film directed by George T. Miller. It stars Jimmy Smits and Naomi Watts. It was nominated for an award by the Australian Film Institute in 1993. The film has been likened to an Australian version of Fatal Attraction.
Plot
At an all-girls academy in Australia, a married philosophy professor, Justin Thorne, attracts a fervent admirer in one of his students, Jennifer Carter.
Daughter of the school's headmaster, Jennifer is driven by a passion for the professor, practically throwing herself at him. Thorne resists repeatedly, but finally yields to temptation. Jennifer, feeling rejected later, accuses the professor of a sexual assault. A journal she has been keeping, fantasizing about a lover, makes it appear that she and the professor have been carrying on a long affair, placing Thorne's reputation and future in grave danger.
Cast
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- Jimmy Smits as Justin Thorne
- Naomi Watts as Jennifer Carter
- Sarah Chadwick as Laura Thorne
- Adrian Wright as Kenneth Carter
- Ross Williams as David Guilde
- Goran Stamenkovic as Oliver Thorne
Story and production
The film was based on a play which was written in 1969 by Lance Peters. It had been suggested by a 1955 scandal in Hobart, where university professor Sydney Orr had been sacked from his job on grounds of gross misconduct. Gross Moral Turpitude, Cassandra Pybus' book on the Orr case which also emerged in 1993, gives a very different reading on Orr from Peters' and this film's. She writes that "in the Orr case... it was almost universally accepted... that an academic who seduced a student should be dismissed. He did. He was."
The movie was the first film to be produced by PRO Films in Australia, a subsidiary of R.A. Beacker & Co. It was shot at various locations around Melbourne, including Melbourne University, the Melbourne Magistrates Court and Queen Victoria Market.
Box office
Gross Misconduct grossed $489,598 at the box office in Australia.
See also
- Cinema of Australia
References
External links
- Gross Misconduct at the Internet Movie Database