St. Trinian's

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St. Trinian's

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St. Trinian's

Mischa Barton, Rupert Everett, Colin Firth, Lena Headey, Caterina Murino

St. Trinian’s, the infamous school for ‘young ladies’ is once again facing dire financial crisis! The bank are threatening headmistress Camilla Fritton with closure. Her unorthodox doctrine of free ex...( read more  read more... )pression and self empowerment is also under threat from new Education Minister Geoffrey Thwaits, an old flame of Camilla’s who is determined to bring discipline and order to the anarchic school.

In true St. Trinian style the girls are in a league of their own; smart, fearless and determined to defend the school they love to the end. They need to unite the warring girl gang cliques and come up with the cash fast to save the school.

Id: 11043894

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St. Trinian's Recent Reviews
  • kiriyamakazou
    June 21, 2009
    kiriyamakazou
    With this and Wild Child, you be forgiven for thinking that most British schools are actually like this. The film tries to justify the anarchic teens actions but misses the point entirely.The children don't seem to learn anything of value and simply use their bad behaviour in ord...( read more)er to "do the right thing". There is a lot of fun to be had as well. Everett is fantastic in a double role and Firth plays his bumbling self with an extra dash of villainy and empathy. The jokes are dated or just completely painful and the sexual undertones are sometimes plain uncomfortable.
  • EarthlyAlien
    July 12, 2008
    EarthlyAlien
    "Daddy, you can't expect me to stay here. It's like Hogwarts for Pikeys!"

    It was inevitable that the "St Trinian's" series would be revived. Ronald Searle's cartoons, created during the Second World War, dealt with life at a bizarre girls' boarding school, and formed the ...( read more)inspiration for four hit feature films made between 1954 and 1966. An attempt was made to revive the franchise in 1980 with The Wildcats of St. Trinian's, but much like the 1992 Carry on Columbus, it lacked the charm of the original series.

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    For this 2007 revamp, co-directors Barnaby Thompson and Oliver Parker (An Ideal Husband, The Importance of Being Earnest) have done an able job of bringing the series back to life. The film features a strong cast, is suitably anarchic and frequently hilarious. It's spot-on for entertaining its target audience of 12-year-old girls and averagely fun for the rest.

    Rupert Everett takes two roles here, just as Alastair Sim did in the original films. We meet the first, scheming art dealer Carnaby Fritton, as he delivers his anxious daughter Annabelle (Talulah Riley, Mary Bennet in Joe Wright's Pride & Prejudice), who has left the rather more refined Cheltenham Girls School, to the semi-derelict country house that is St Trinian's. St Trinian's is run by Carnaby's sister, Camilla, who's also played by Everett, done up in broad country ma'am drag. Annabelle is introduced to the school's different factions: chavs, posh tottie, geeks, organised crime first years and the "We're-not-goths-we're-emos", all of whom are presided over by head girl Kelly (Gemma Arterton, who we'll soon see again in Quantum of Solace).

    The kids get little in the way of formal teaching, but instead play with guns with army vet Miss Cleaver (Fenella Woolgar) or learn how to talk their way out of a dodgy drug deal by Miss Maupassant (Caterina Murino), the object of desire for the school's treasurer (Toby Jones). Alongside the teaching staff, there's also Flash Harry, the petty criminal, played by George Cole in the original films. Here the mantle is passed to Russell Brand, who shamelessly plays the classic role, complete with trademark jewellery and a small chemical plant's worth of hairspray. The girls work with him to sell their killer vodka, cooked up in the chemistry labs, and their designer tampons (cue that old "What's this?" gag from the The Young Ones).

    St Trinian's' slow set-up is its biggest flaw. There's a string of great, sketch-like set-pieces though, including a school weapons amnesty, and some cheeky dialogue. Like all the best films aimed at younger audiences, St Trinian's packs in a lot that kids won't necessarily pick up on - notably drug references (signs doctored from "Keep off the grass" to "Keep off your head"; "Does anybody have any smelling salts?" "No, but I've got poppers", etc.) as well as asides about the acting careers of Everett and Colin Firth.

    Firth plays the nominal nemesis, Minister of Education Geoffrey Thwaites who's determined to give a "good kick up the arse" to poorly performing schools, exemplified by St Trinian's. He was also the lover of Camilla at university - "Another time", "Another country" they say to each other, in a nod to the 1984 drama in which they both starred. To milk the film references yet further, we get Firth reprising his wet shirt scene from '"Pride and Prejudice"', and Camilla's dog is called Mr Darcy. It's not sophisticated, but it is fun.

    After some cruel initiation Annabelle becomes a St Trinian, and when the school is faced with foreclosure from £500,000 debts and Carnaby's dubious intentions to turn it into a boutique hotel, she's at the heart of a plan to save the school through some elaborate art theft. When Kelly suggests stealing Vermeer's Girl With The Pearl Earring, the dim posh tottie girls Chelsea (Tamsin Egerton), Peaches (Amara Karan, who played Rita the train stewardess in The Darjeeling Limited) and Chloe (Antonia Bernath) respond with "Oh my God, you want to steal Scarlett Johansson!?" Cue more inter-textual nods to Firth, who also starred in that film.

    To pull the stunt off, the girls have to reach the final of "School Challenge", a quiz show hosted by Stephen Fry, which is taking place at the National Gallery. This pleases prissy English teacher Miss Dickinson (Lena Headey) no end, though of course she's oblivious to their dubious methods (sex, drugs, technology) for beating Ampleforth, Bedales and Eton. The girls' plan involves Flash pretending to be a gay German black market art dealer and the pupils going all Mission: Impossible, complete with an animated sequence that nicely references the style of Searle's original cartoons.

    The film's girl power message is thoroughly laboured, and the story occasionally grinds to a standstill. But when that happens the filmmakers carefully come up with a quick scene of the girls screaming and dancing madly to a classic rock cover, or cut back to the Everett-Firth double-act, which has plenty of chemistry even when the lines are groaners. (Everett appears in full Elizabeth I regalia and asks, "Don't you think I make a good queen?")

    Ultimately, the film manages to be both anarchic and edgy. The drug references may seem almost quaint to UK audiences, but how they'll wash in the US is another matter; and the film does have a US market in mind, as is made clear in the occasional but overt Americanisation. Yet the tone is also warmly conservative. As the Spice Girls once so helpfully explained, girl power is about female empowerment, but it's also about solidarity. Here the girls do their own thing with wild abandon, but also work together to save the school. Heavy-handed at times and poorly plotted, but energetic and funny. A suitably undignified return to the screen for the notorious school and its out-of-control pupils. Those who aren't familiar with the original cartoons should skip this, 'cause there's nothing here for them.
  • organgrinder136
    June 10, 2008
    organgrinder136
    there couldn't be a more girly and pre-teen film ever. saying that i liked watching russell brands antics.... and there were some funny moments... but... i feel a bit old for this sort of stuff. someone who's about 9 years old would enjoy this thoroughly. colin firth... (mr borin...( read more)g as well as mr annoying in every film he's ever been in) is boring and annoying. oh, and why is russell brand obsessed with a schoolgirl? isn't that a bit pedo???
  • roygutteridge
    June 10, 2008
    roygutteridge
    Lacking any really sharp dialogue, the film just about goes the distance
  • mingsysar
    January 5, 2009
    mingsysar
    Awful but fun.
  • theloneowl
    December 29, 2009
    theloneowl
    Talmente brutto da fare quasi tenerezza =D
    Anche se la battuta su Colin Firth mi ha fatto ridere parecchio, lo ammetto!
  • atkinrichard772
    December 21, 2009
    atkinrichard772
    This film was good fun to watch and has some good funny moments, i had never seen the Orginal version but my Wife says it's definately filmed in the same style as the orginal which is good. I look forward to watching the second film.
  • doglover000000
    December 20, 2009
    doglover000000
    I can't wait for the second one! This is a humourous, Bad girl adventure! Love it
  • eryri
    December 20, 2009
    eryri
    An enjoyable romp and a fun movie to watch. Plenty of comedy to keep anybody entertained and as for the girls......Gemma Arterton and that posh totty Chelsea were red hot!
  • kikibirdball
    December 16, 2009
    kikibirdball
    one of my favourite films! i cant wait for 2 (it comes out next friday!!!! *squeeee DT*
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