Not knowing a thing about the new film Bad Apples, which is having its world premiere at the Toronto Film Festival, it took me awhile to realize “Oh wait, this is really a very, very dark comedy.” So once I got what director Jonathan Etzler and writer Jess O’ Kane were up to, I could more comfortably go with a premise that is so out there in terms of credibility and could relax and actually laugh at the absurdity of it all.

It all starts innocently enough, especially if you’ve seen the number of school-based movies as I have, so many of them highlighted with warlike confrontations between teacher and student(s) (i.e., Blackboard Jungle, Up the Down Staircase, Lean On Me, etc., etc). Thus when this well-meaning educator, Marie (Saoirse Ronan), attempts to keep her class under control and engaged while giving a lesson in the deep meaning of lyrics to Ricki Lee Jones’ “On Saturday Afternoons in 1963,” I wasn’t shocked that it failed to hold their attention. But when one of the 10-year-olds in the class, Danny (Eddie Waller), starts disrupting the proceedings, throwing things and generally creating pure mayhem, I just thought why don’t they lock this kid up and throw away the key?

When that actually happens a bit later in the film, in even more hard-to-fathom circumstances, I finally realized this is supposed to be funny, and eventually it kicks in. Before that seminal moment however, Danny goes full terrorist even to the point of attacking and breaking the arm of another student, Pauline (Nia Brown). Nevertheless, good teacher that she is, Marie actually tries to help Danny, first pleading with his reluctant and absent working single dad Josh (Robert Emms), who is too busy to even hear about it, although you just know this is a guy who has brushed off complaints about his son before. But then, during a rainstorm, Marie tries to — figuratively — rope Danny like a wild horse, resulting in a knock-down drag-out fight, and then putting him in the back of her car before speeding away. In no time they are at her house and, impulsively making a very bad judgment, she locks the kid away in her basement.

In a sane world Marie would have done something about getting Danny back to his own home and alerting the school authorities and his father, but this is not what she does. Instead, Danny is a captive in her home, for days into weeks. His absence goes from a missing person to one presumed kidnapped, but no one seems to have a clue. Meanwhile, Marie takes decent care of him as he is held prisoner, even eventually playing his beloved video games and having reasonable conversations. At the same time, as these weeks go by, there are passionate school meetings she attends where the mystery of Danny’s disappearance is topic No. 1 with the school leadership, with the other parents, with Josh, you name it, but she doesn’t say a thing. Soon parents are suddenly thrilled, as is she, that her class is improving noticeably, grades are going up up up, and things are better than ever. Marie realizes Danny was the roadblock, so why give up the goose? She’s now a star teacher! Potential trouble arises when the wily victim of Danny’s, Pauline, starts snooping around the house, hears Danny’s voice and starts to bargain for her silence. Oh yeah, things get, uh, complicated — and funnier if you go with it.

Ronan, never known for playing comedy, especially one as dark as this, perfectly underplays her new status, which is why it works. If Marie were over the top the whole cookie would crumble, but Ronan is too good an actress to let that happen and she has the comic chops. She is well matched with Waller, who was a real find by casting director Fiona Weir in the north of England and had never acted. He’s a natural, especially as a kid with pent-up frustration with the world around him, a kid who needs understanding and compassion but doesn’t get it in a society that just thinks the best thing is to make him go away. Brown as the crafty Pauline is the true scene stealer, negotiating terms of terror herself. The funniest bit was when she forces Marie to let her endlessly sing every verse of her miserable holiday song in front of a parents meeting. LOL.

The Swedish Etzler, a former Student Academy Award winner, lets the dark tone of this all, and especially its absurd nature, shine through right to the pitch-perfect ending.

Bad Apples comes from Paramount subsidiary Republic Pictures and is looking for distribution, much the same way the Oscar-nominated September 5 was last season before Paramount came to it senses and released it itself after much film festival praise. We shall see what happens with the very deserving Bad Apples.

Producer is Oskar Pimlott.

Title: Bad Apples
Festival: Toronto (Special Presentations)
Director: Jonathan Etzler
Screenwriter: Jess O’Kane
Cast: Saoirse Ronan, Eddie Waller, Nia Brown, Jacob Anderson, Rakie Ayola, Robert Emms, Sean Gilder
Sales agent: Republic Pictures
Running time: 1 hr 40 mins