Review of The Scouting Book for Boys (2010) by Kevin C — 11 Sep 2010

Coming of age tale in Norfolk. On a drab caravan park the teen girl fakes her disappearance, hiding out in a nearby cave and choosing the kid from This Is England as her only link with the outside world. But as their companionship develops (in Davidâ??s mind, at least) into something more serious, his emotional state becomes increasingly unstable.

The film works well in nailing adolescent romantic obsession: that feeling of swooning desperation that comes with unrequited love. It is a film dripping with nostalgia â?? the heartfelt but unsentimental longing for the emotional intensity of childhood, however painful it might have been at the time.

It is therefore a shame that it falls apart in the final reel. It takes a series of perilous narrative risks in the final act, which although graphic are a failure in my opinion.