Review of The History Boys (2006) by Chun L — 16 Mar 2009

Well acted, warm, funny but confused about its message and its morals, 'The History Boys' is a strange little movie. Some moments had me laughing out loud, other scenes moved me considerably and the rest just had me going 'huh?'.

First of all, this is a script that was obviously written originally for the stage - in places in truly does feel as though you are watching a home video of a play. Not all of the dialogue transfers well to the screen and some of the conversations seem a little confused and random and don't flow as normal speech would (perhaps because it's been edited to fit a movie run-time?).

The young lads were all brilliant in their roles, particularly Samuel Barnett as the confused Posner (my favourite moment was his impression of Celia Johnson in 'Brief Encounter'!), and they are joined by some British legends, such as Richard Griffiths and Frances De La Tour.

I'd watch this again -but more for the banter and the one-liners than for the actual story.