Plot: A group of Yorkshire schoolboys in 1983 try to get into Oxbridge.
Alan Bennett is a celebrated playwright who has written for the screen several times. However on previous occasions he was telling a story, whilst in this instance he is trying to preach. He wants to pass on his knowledge. To tell us of the value of education, of knowledge for the sake of knowledge, of constantly striving to extend one's appreciation and understanding of high culture. It doesn't work.
Because Bennett started out as a working class Yorkshire lad this film is set in Yorkshire, in 1985, despite the complete absence of Yorkshire mannerisms, patterns of speech and period attitudes. Because Bennett went to Oxford University (which, like so many others, he has never gotten over) the characters all indulge in constant, faux-witty, intellectual wordplay rather than conversations. It is difficult to escape the belief that Bennett, rather than characterising them, instead uses them like puppets to show the audience how clever he is (every character, in effect, sounds like Alan Bennett). The result is deeply annoying. Furthermore because Bennett is gay the schoolboys are all deeply homophile and there is plenty of what can only be described as homosexual letching over young, fresh boys. One teacher, Richard Griffiths in full charm mode, is a serial groper of his pupils whilst another teacher, in a revolting scene, is propositioned, quite out of the blue and out of character, by one of his pupils. And as Bennett is both homosexual and an intellectual we get villains like the grasping headmaster obsessed only by league tables and the moronic PE teacher who is also an overbearing Christian (and therefore anti-homosexual). Both are, at best, shallow stereotypes. To win praise with the chattering classes there is a scene conducted entirely and pointlessly in French. Bennett, like an unruly child, seems determined to shout, "Look at me! Aren't I clever?" at the audience.
There are other flaws. The cinematography is beyond dull, the pacing non-existent, many characters have strikingly little to do and for a film about the value of knowledge there is a surprisingly ignorant section on the First World War that happily repeats falsehoods that were disproved decades ago. The ending meanwhile is deeply unsatisfying. The serial groper dies, cue melodrama, whilst all the boys get into Oxford, cue collapse of what little drama remained. In conclusion: pretentious tosh for metropolitan boobies.
Alan Bennett is a celebrated playwright who has written for the screen several times. However on previous occasions he was telling a story, whilst in this instance he is trying to preach. He wants to pass on his knowledge. To tell us of the value of education, of knowledge for the sake of knowledge, of constantly striving to extend one's appreciation and understanding of high culture. It doesn't work.
Because Bennett started out as a working class Yorkshire lad this film is set in Yorkshire, in 1985, despite the complete absence of Yorkshire mannerisms, patterns of speech and period attitudes. Because Bennett went to Oxford University (which, like so many others, he has never gotten over) the characters all indulge in constant, faux-witty, intellectual wordplay rather than conversations. It is difficult to escape the belief that Bennett, rather than characterising them, instead uses them like puppets to show the audience how clever he is (every character, in effect, sounds like Alan Bennett). The result is deeply annoying. Furthermore because Bennett is gay the schoolboys are all deeply homophile and there is plenty of what can only be described as homosexual letching over young, fresh boys. One teacher, Richard Griffiths in full charm mode, is a serial groper of his pupils whilst another teacher, in a revolting scene, is propositioned, quite out of the blue and out of character, by one of his pupils. And as Bennett is both homosexual and an intellectual we get villains like the grasping headmaster obsessed only by league tables and the moronic PE teacher who is also an overbearing Christian (and therefore anti-homosexual). Both are, at best, shallow stereotypes. To win praise with the chattering classes there is a scene conducted entirely and pointlessly in French. Bennett, like an unruly child, seems determined to shout, "Look at me! Aren't I clever?" at the audience.
There are other flaws. The cinematography is beyond dull, the pacing non-existent, many characters have strikingly little to do and for a film about the value of knowledge there is a surprisingly ignorant section on the First World War that happily repeats falsehoods that were disproved decades ago. The ending meanwhile is deeply unsatisfying. The serial groper dies, cue melodrama, whilst all the boys get into Oxford, cue collapse of what little drama remained. In conclusion: pretentious tosh for metropolitan boobies.