FLIRTING (1991)
A film review by Steve Rhodes
Copyright 1996 Steve Rhodes
RATING (0 TO ****): ** 1/2
FLIRTING is a 1991 Australian film set in "Rural Australia in 1965." I read that it is a sequel to THE YEAR MY VOICE BROKE, which I have not seen, but there were no references to it in this film which effectively stands alone.
At the center of FLIRTING is an interracial love story, but most of the picture is about the difficulties of living in strict boarding schools. The last part of the picture is an honest and insightful consideration of adolescent sex. Up until the last part, the picture is pure formula and reminded me of a dozen other films. The characters are pleasant enough, but very familiar. If you rent the tape, hang in there because in the last twenty minutes or so the film comes into its own and has something fresh to say.
As the film opens, a group of boys at a boy's boarding school are in a line outside one of their teacher's rooms so they can be caned for some offense. After that, they go back to their rooms and drop their drawers so that can compare scars on their buttocks. This mass mooning is pretty sophomoric film making.
The lead boy in the film, Danny Embling (Noah Taylor), is ridiculed by his fellow students since he stutters and because he lets them. In one scene he looks across the lake at the companion girl's school and muses their schools "look at each other like brooding volcanoes."
A beautiful, and free spirited girl named Thandiwe Adjewa (Thandie Newton) from Uganda comes to the girl's school. As soon as Danny sees her, he falls for her. Her father is teaching at a local University, but there are links to some vague political crisis back in Uganda. Thandiwe begins to like Danny as well until she drops him because of a misunderstanding. From there the script by the director John Duigan takes the standard turns. Little happens that you haven't seen before, and the acting, although good, is nothing special.
Nicole Kidman is kind of interesting as ultra-pretty, blonde student Nicola Radcliffe. She plays the type that teenage boys drool over, and consequently she is very stuck up. When asked if she likes a guy, she ridicules the idea with "he's only a tradesman"
As one of many ways the script just follows the standard formula, all of the teachers are mean and strict. The only question is the degree. Except for the odd show glorifying some special teacher, boarding school teachers are on par with aluminum siding salesmen, Nazis and preachers in the pecking order developed by most authors. In fact, one of the teachers in FLIRTING is imaged by Danny to be wearing a Nazi uniform.
In the last part, the film begins to break a little new ground. The girls have a frank discussion about petting, and Danny and Thandiwe have to deal with what to do with their relationship - not the interracial aspects which are almost totally ignored in the film, but the sexual. These are issues that teenagers have to grapple with today, and this film treats them tenderly and honestly. After having no meaningful music in most of the film, even the music comes alive in the end.
I had a problem with the cinematography. The nighttime sequences across the lake are filmed in luminescent darkness so that it looked like a scene from The Arabian Nights. Whereas this worked, most of the film was in sepia tones of the interiors. This looked more dreary than nostalgic which was I think was the intention of the tones.
FLIRTING runs a little long at 1:39 given the repetitive material. It is in Australian English without subtitles. I have seen a lot of non-American English shows so I was able to follow it, but it may leave some dazed and confused. The film is rated R. There is brief nudity, a little sex, mild language, and the violence of a boxing match. It is close to PG-13, and I think the show would be fine for mature kids as young as 11 or 12. Although I still can not figure out how at least one critic had this film on his best of the year's list, I did like it because the formulaic script finally had something to say toward the end. I give the show a mild thumbs up and ** 1/2.
**** = One of the top few films of this or any year. A must see film. *** = Excellent show. Look for it. ** = Average movie. Kind of enjoyable. * = Poor show. Don't waste your money. 0 = One of the worst films of this or any year. Totally unbearable.
REVIEW WRITTEN ON: May 26, 1996
Opinions expressed are mine and not meant to reflect my employer's.
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