Review of The History Boys (2006) by Paul E — 08 Jan 2016

A very British trifle. An interesting story of teenage boys trying to get into Oxford, it has all of the focal points of such a story, with sex being the main one. However, I was a bit put off on how the "peccadilloes" of one of the professors is kind of brushed off.

I struggle with that, because he was a great character otherwise and I feel like the only reason he was portrayed this way was to amp up the homo-eroticism of the film. In fact, it's pederasty and, to me, was very unpleasant.

It wasn't needed and it was very off-putting to me. The cast, as a whole, is great with Richard Griffiths (Uncle Vernon Dursley of "Harry Potter" fame) being outstanding, even if he does play said pederast.

I enjoyed it to a point, but I couldn't understand the acceptance. Perhaps it's very "Britishness" is beyond me.