Review of St Trinian's (2007) by Yanni Y — 18 Dec 2010

I just recently saw this film, and I found out soon after that it is part of a franchise. Naturally, I haven't seen any of the other entries in the franchise, but seeing this movie really makes me want to. It's funny, it's creative, the costumes and sets are wonderful, and it's just a good movie. Granted, it's far from perfect, but it's still pretty good and definitely underrated.

First of all, it's pretty well-acted. It has Gemma Arterton in the lead role, and she does surprisingly well. If you don't know her by name, she's the hot girl in Clash of the Titans and Prince of Persia who I suspected had little to no acting talent besides being hot. This movie definitely proved me wrong. Not only can she act, but she can act quite well, especially in the role of leader. The supporting cast does well too, like Russell Brand, Rupert Everett, and Colin Firth, as well as the other girls of St. Trinian's.

The visual style of this movie is awesome, namely the sets, hair, makeup, and costumes. Let's just say that the girls of St. Trinian's may wear uniforms, but they couldn't look more different. This is prevalent in the makeover scene in the middle of the movie on Annabelle (Talula Riley) by the other girls. Plus, it's the only scene where self-indulgent glamour shots don't seem forced or contrived. The design of the school itself is really cool, looking like an old English boarding school but still seeming fairly modern on the inside.

But it naturally comes down to story for the win. I say for the win because it truly does win. Some plot points have been used before, but the story as a whole still manages to be creative and original. For those who don't know, it's about the girls at an anarchistic boarding school which is losing funding and being publicly attacked by Colin Firth, who plays our main antagonist.

They plan to steal and "find" a famous painting in order to collect the cash reward and save the school. They also plan to enter an academics competition, and help the relatively dumb contestants by feeding them answers through earpieces, which they know by stealing the answer guides to each contest. The conflict seems to go off without a hitch, but it may be resolved in the sequel, which I haven't seen, so this is all I know. The story is creative, and encorporates humour and hijinks well.

But for all that I like about it, it's certainly far from perfect. Despite it being a good film, it probably won't leave much of an impression and just go down as a b-comedy with a bit of a cult following. It was also quite vulgar at times, and that can detract from the story. But all the mistakes are compensated for and then some.

If you haven't seen it, it's definitely worth a watch, whether you end up liking it or not. It definitely deserves a better RT rating, because it's a pretty good film. I may see more of the franchise, and I will review them if I do. All in all, a pretty good b-comedy that won me over with it's charms.