Sex Ed may well be the perfect comeback vehicle for Haley Joel Osment, if only because its protagonist represents an affably apt metaphor for the Sixth Sense star’s career.
Once upon a time, a young Osment made waves through Hollywood thanks to his turn in M. Night Shyamalan’s best film, not to mention the treacly star vehicle Pay it Forward and the odd A.I. Artificial Intelligence; now he’s cast in movies primarily because there’s novelty in hearing the baby-faced actor spout off juvenile dialogue (a la September’s Tusk). So what better way for Osment to get back on track than by playing a loveable schlub who turns over a new leaf in life by teaching middle schoolers about the birds and the bees?
Thus, Isaac Feder’s Sex Ed: a movie that looks like a “kids say the darndest things” picture from a distance but more closely resembles a “Haley Joel Osment says the darndest things” picture in close-up. And, surprise of all surprises, it’s a real charmer, a scrappy little comedy about sex positivism in an era when Americans still feel super duper uncomfortable frankly talking about anything and everything erotic. Osment is its center, and Feder barely lets a frame go by that doesn’t prominently feature his bright, twinkling visage. The director doesn’t miss many chances to put his leading man in awkward scenarios, either, so in the end Sex Ed takes as much advantage of Osment’s celebrity persona as Kevin Smith did.
But Sex Ed is a far more successful picture than Tusk, and if Osment’s casting is a punchline of sorts, it’s a pretty good one. Here, he plays Eddie Cole, a man born to instruct but robbed of opportunities to do so. He’s about as down on his luck as a person can get—he works at a bagel shop, and he’s a virgin, a fact that isn’t helped by his best friend and roommate JT’s (Glen Powell) tendency to have sex all over their apartment with his awesome new girlfriend Ally (Castille Landon). But then Eddie finds a job running an after school program in Ybor City, Florida, and, answering the call, he finds himself able to do what he does best: talk to kids about puberty, safe sex, and the human reproductive system. Which happens more or less by accident—it all starts with a student starting her first menstrual cycle—but Eddie sees a real need for sex education in the school, and he embraces his new role with enthusiasm.