Tenure 2009

Charlie Thurber, Luke Wilson, is a beleaguered English professor at the fictional Grey College in Pennsylvania who is in a tense race for tenure against a dazzling new hire from Yale, Elaine Grasso, Gretchen Mol.

On the other side, Jay Hadley, David Koechner, an anthropology professor at Grey, tries to persuade Thurber to sabotage Grasso’s career while privately chasing his own odd fixation on proving Bigfoot’s existence.

Thurber’s articles keep getting rejected by journals, fueling his anxiety about the infamous “publish or perish” culture that can threaten a career in academia. Yet, despite the rivalry, Thurber and Grasso gradually form a cautious friendship after she struggles as a classroom teacher and seeks his guidance.

Off campus, Thurber deals with a family crisis: his sister Margaret, Sasha Alexander, pleads for money to help fund their father’s retirement home.

A flirtatious student, Beth, Rosemarie DeWitt, becomes involved; to avoid being single, Thurber hires Beth to pose as his girlfriend for a dinner with Grasso and her snobbish boyfriend Warren, Andy Daly.

As the tenure review proceeds, the dean—Dean Leakey, William Bogert—casts the deciding vote. The faculty sees that Thurber’s students consistently rate him highly, and the dean offers probational tenure, but with a reduction in classroom time to free him up for publishing in reputable outlets.

In the final act, Thurber invites his ailing father, William Thurber, Bob Gunton, to move in, and throws a party at his home. He learns that Grasso has broken up with her boyfriend, hinting that she may want to pursue a relationship with Thurber. The film closes with him heading into a new teaching position at another college, a choice that aligns with his lifelong calling—to teach in a classroom, as his father reminds him.