St. Trinians
Review
by Anthony Morris
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Not
every movie concept is helped by the passage of time.
For St. Trinians
(based on a series of 1960's films based on the cartoons of Richard
Searle) it takes the edge off what was once a cutting comedy concept.
After all, these days a school rife with sex, drug-taking and crime
isn't a comedy; it's an episode of Today
Tonight.
But in a way that works in St.
Trinians'
favour. It's crimes become cartoony ones without the edge of real
anarchy: only a cartoon could get away with getting laughs out of
kicking a (much-loved) dog into a lawn mower.
The story
picks up and discards plot threads almost at random: at turns it's the
story of new girl Beverly (Jodie Whittaker) trying to fit in, a look at
the complicated and amoral set-up inside the school, the various
criminal schemes the girls operate under the mentorship of local crime
spiv Flash harry (Russell Brand), the threat from the new Education
Minister (Colin Firth) to tidy the place up, and the efforts by
headmistress Miss Fritton (Rupert Everett in drag) to fend off the
school's creditors.
All this ends up in a big art heist during an It's Academic-style
TV show hosted by an (at one-stage) drug-addled Stephen Fry, and while
it's not the masterpiece of comic invention a comedy heist should be,
it does feature Everett in drag swinging on a rope.
If
the humour is a bit soft in parts despite the piles of pills,
explosives-packing pre-teens and sleazy double-entendres, the many
enjoyably lightweight performances from the adult cast (almost) make up
for it.
There's a fun energy to this sight-gag filled
film and while it's not completely successful, for what it is, it hits
more than it misses.
3 out
of 5
St.
Trinians
Australian release: 27th March,
2008
Cast:
Rupert Everett, Colin Firth, Jodie Whittaker
Director: Oliver Parker and
Barnaby Thompson
Brought
To You By It's
Better In The Dark
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