Strictly average movie

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

In one school is Danny Embling (Noah Taylor), an introspective young man who reads Camus and Sartre; in the other school is Thandie Newton (Thandiwe Adjewa) the daughter of a Ugandan diplomat. Danny is an outsider because of his shy manner, gawky build, and offbeat intellectual passions. Thandie suffers racist comments and ostracism from her school mates. But it's not like either Danny or Thandie is a total outcast--they are just not in the in crowd. Well, it's almost foreordained that these two outsiders are going to fall for each other and the movie sparkles in detailing their evolving relationship. The development of their sexual feelings is handled with great tenderness and reflects the awkwardness most young people have in these areas. You have to appreciate the honesty of a film like this.The success of "Flirting" owes a lot to the performances. Taylor is perfect in his portrayal of a reserved, yet rebellious, teen and the attractive Adjewa plays the more mature Thandie with subtlety. Nicole Kidman plays a snobbish, but ultimately likable, classmate of Thandie with such believability that you wonder what she was like when she was younger.The issue of the mixed race relationship between Danny and Thandie is downplayed. There is some circumspection about it, but that aspect of the relationship is never put front and center.This is a sequel to "The Year My Voice Broke" and, if you like "Flirting," you will most likely enjoy the earlier movie as well. Poor Danny seems destined to sit on a rock on the outskirts of town contemplating why the women in his life had to leave him.

The irreverent Australian teen who survived the first advance of puberty in 'The Year My Voice Broke' finds himself enrolled in a strict, boys-only boarding school and attracted to a demure young girl (played by newcomer Thandie Newton, in a remarkably natural performance) from the equally cloistered girl's academy across the river. He fact that she's a refugee from Uganda isn't an issue (except to indicate how each is an outsider in their respective schools), and their refreshingly colorblind romance lifts the film above the average horny teenage mating ritual. Writer director John Duigan identifies every bane of post adolescent life (braces, pimples, raging hormones), but beyond that captures all the tyranny of petty academic oppression and the terrible yearning of sexual awakening, depicted for once without any bogus slow motion ecstasy or crass innuendo. With so many grace notes it seems mean to point out the usual irritating prop of unnecessary voice-over narration, and the unrealistic optimism of the resolution: teen romance rarely ends happily-ever-after, even in rose-colored memories.

Heavens be thanked for how Australians and New Zealanders have revived the acting element of film. Everything in the country seems set up to produce performing artists, even talented writers that understand acting, where Brazil produces soccer players and the US lawyers.Here you have three of our actresses in essentially their first roles. Thandie Newton already at the peak of her screen charm, and Nicole Kidman and buddy Naomi Watts. Set in Australia, written and directed by an Australian, using what I have come to think of as the simple end of an Australian character spectrum.This is a simple "coming of age" story. So simple, you begin with some trepidation. How many of these does one have to slog through to find something new? Well, there's nothing new here, but it turns adult rather quickly toward the end and allows us to leave it without feeling cheap.And isn't that part of the skill of these things, to allow us to visit the insecurities of youth (which we probably still have) and to do so safely and finally to recall the experience fondly (so we will tell our friends to see this movie).Nicole and Naomi aren't any reason to see this. They're simply standard props and rather far from the skills they'd develop. No, it is just the simple arc of the thing. No particular folding (as in "Sirens"), no cheap titillation, just honest, innocent yearning in a hostile world. Hostile large and small.Concerning the titillation, a key plot device revolves around our hero interceding to prevent a compromising photo from being taken. So, a negative fold, if you will, a deliberate statement of flatness. This is accentuated by frequent references to booknames that would be familiar to youngsters as "adult" (Sartre, Camus, Marx) and Sartre's appearance at the boxing match where our hero gets pummeled. Ted's Evaluation -- 3 of 3: Worth watching.

When I read the plot line, my first reaction was "How many times can they do this plot!" This is the story of a young man and woman who become romantically interested in each other in a prep school in Australia. He is white and she is a black African. The female lead is played by Thandie Newton, of current "ER" and "MI:2" fame. Of course, this kind of movie must have the mean-spirited, cute girl. In this case, that was played by Nicole Kidman. I rented this movie as a curiosity to see these fine actresses (and Naomi Watts) in their pre-fame days.I was pleasantly surprised at the flow and depth of this movie. The characters were quite 3-dimensional and avoided the obvious stereotypes. I was particularly satisfied with the character that Nicole Kidman played. At first, I was a little put off by the attempts of these prep school kids to be philosophically "deep", but not coming close. Then it occurred to me that I was that way when I was their age 25 years ago.In all a very fine coming-of-age movie. I recommend that you rent this for an enjoyable plot and wonderful characters.