Friday, 4 April 2008

Tales out of school


Today's movie outing was to 'St Trinian's', a contemporary revisiting of the school and shenanigans first inflicted on the world in 'The Belles of St Trinian's' which was released in 1954.



I did not go to this with high expectations but as an antidote to the heart wrenching subject matter of my previous outing to 'The Black Balloon'. What I expected was an Ealing Studios type comedy of little subtlety and that is pretty well what 'St Trinian's' delivers.

There was the occasional funny line and the film satisfies any desire for a mindless couple of hours in front of the television or at the cinema on bargain ticket day on a wet afternoon.

But it was a bit of a disappointment. Some scenes, especially the school quiz and heist scenes seemed to drag. Furthermore, top British support cast members such as Stephen Fry and Celia Imrie are not seen to advantage and are poorly used.

The film contains a few in-joke references to Colin Firth's other roles but these are the only subtle moments. I had hoped there might be some male eye candy on view in the form of male teachers and/or boyfriends but only Firth and someone named Russell Brand satisfied this gay man's eye in that respect.

Lovers of drag might get a kick out of Rupert Everett's headmistress character.

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