Derek Thompson is a minor league hockey player nicknamed the "Tooth Fairy" for hitting opposing players so hard that he knocks out their teeth. One night, Derek steals a dollar from his girlfriend Carly's six-year-old daughter Tess that had been left for her lost tooth and tells her that the tooth fairy doesn't exist. Then he receives a magical summons under his pillow. He grows wings and is transported to the realm of tooth fairies. He meets his caseworker, Tracy and the head fairy, Lily. He has an adversarial relationship with them. Lily tells Derek that he is a "dream crusher," due to his unsympathetic dealings with children like Dusty. He is sentenced to serve two weeks as a tooth fairy. Later, he meets Jerry, who gives him his tooth fairy supplies, which include "Shrinking Paste," "Invisible Spray," and "Amnesia Dust." Carly's 14-year-old son, Randy dislikes Derek. Randy wants to grow up to be a heavy metal star. When Derek defends Randy against a bully, he begins to win him over, and Derek begins teaching him to play his electric guitar better so he can win a talent show. Derek visits several children and tries his best to be a good tooth fairy, but ends up causing more harm than good. Lily says that he is the worst tooth fairy ever and denies Derek any more supplies from Jerry for the remainder of his sentence, criticizing his lack of faith in children. Afterward, he is approached by a fairy named Ziggy who provides him black market supplies. Later that night, the items malfunction and Derek is seen by a child's mother and arrested. While behind bars, Tracy tells Derek that Lily extended his duty to three weeks. However, he offers to give Derek proper supplies if he will start acting like a tooth fairy. Carly bails Derek out. Derek works on improving his tooth fairy skills and bonding with Tracy and Randy, but when Derek becomes frustrated after freezing up while about to score a goal at a hockey game, causing him to get benched for tomorrow's game, he takes his anger out on Randy, telling him that he will never become a rock star. His dreams crushed, Randy smashes his guitar and Carly breaks up with Derek, telling him his biggest flaw is his inability to be optimistic. Later, Tracy comes to Derek's house and announces that he is a tooth fairy-in-training, but that Derek's cruel remarks hurt himself more than others, much to Derek's annoyance. The next game, Derek gets back on the ice and sees Tracy. Tracy wants to teach Derek the importance of dreams, encouraging Derek to score a goal and to go get Tess' tooth. With a renewed spirit, Derek scores the goal, gets into his tooth fairy costume, and flies away while Tracy spreads Amnesia Dust on the audience to cover up the event. At Carly's, Tess sees Derek taking her tooth, but she promises to keep it a secret and Derek apologizes to Randy and encourages him to keep pursuing his dreams using his magic wand to grant Randy a new guitar. Downstairs, Carly sees him as a tooth fairy, but assumes that he rented a costume for Tess' sake, causing her to forgive him. Derek flies Randy to the talent show and throws Amnesia Dust on him when they arrive. Derek heads back to the fairy realm to give Lily the tooth, and is told that because of this job, as well as reaffirming Tess' belief, he has been relieved of his fairy duties. Lily explains that he will never see the tooth fairies again and he will have Amnesia Dust thrown on him. Before departing, Derek says a friendly goodbye to Tracy. Lily throws Amnesia Dust on Derek and transports him back to the talent show. There, Randy outperforms everyone and ends up forming a band. Derek proposes to Carly, and she accepts. During the credits, Derek is shown playing left wing for the Los Angeles Kings, and when he sees Lily and Jerry in the crowd, he doesn't recognize them. Jerry secretly helps him score a goal.
Cast
Dwayne Johnson as Derek Thompson, a hockey player.
Ashley Judd as Carly Harris, Derek's girlfriend.
Julie Andrews as Lily, the boss of the tooth fairies.
Stephen Merchant as Tracy, a fairy assigned to be Derek's case manager.
The hockey scenes were filmed at the Great Western Forum using players from the Los Angeles Kings. The score for Tooth Fairy was composed by George S. Clinton and recorded in the spring of 2009 with an 80-piece ensemble of the Hollywood Studio Symphony at the Newman Scoring Stage at 20th Century Fox studios.
Reception
Box office
The film was released on January 22, 2010, and opened in 3,344 theaters and took in $3,544,512 its opening day, with an average of $1,060 per theater. On its opening weekend, it grossed $14,010,409 with an average of $4,190 per theater. It ranked #4, behind Avatar, Legion, and The Book of Eli; however, the film rose to #3 on that weekend in Canada with $16,000,000 and remained #4 in the U.S. on its second weekend, behind Avatar, Edge of Darkness, and When in Rome. Despite negative reviews, the film has come to be a box office hit grossing $60,022,256 in the United States and Canada, and $51,854,764 in other markets, grossing a worldwide total of $111,877,020.
Critical response
On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 18% based on 113 reviews with an average rating of 4/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Dwayne Johnson brings the full force of his charm to the title role, but flat direction and a committee-written script render The Tooth Fairy unacceptably dull." On Metacritic, the film has a score of 36 out of 100 based on 24 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A–" on an A+ to F scale.
Home media
Tooth Fairy was released on DVD and Blu-ray Disc/DVD/Digital copy combination pack on May 4, 2010.
Sequel
Tooth Fairy was followed up by a sequel, starring Larry the Cable Guy as the title character. Directed by Alex Zamm, Tooth Fairy 2 had a direct-to-video release on March 6, 2012.
