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flick pick | Flirting 1991 Directed by: John Duigan Starring: Noah Taylor, Thandie Newton, Nicole Kidman Language: English Look for it at the video store under: foreign [australian], drama Watch it when you’re in the mood for something: lovey, nostalgic

Plot synopsis Danny’s a gawky adolescent, enduring the trials of growing up as a smart boy with a stutter at a posh Australian boarding school, sometime in the 1960s.  The boys at school pick on him relentlessly, but in truth, scrawny, oddball Danny is far more secure in his own self than any of those blustering, pretty-boy jocks. When Thandiwe, a new student at the sister school across the lake, first meets Danny at a school football game, she’s immediately intrigued by his unusual intelligence, dry-witted humor, and non-conformist attitude.  Strikingly pretty and a good deal more sophisticated than her fellow classmates, half-English, half-Ugandan Thandiwe has found herself stuck in what she considers to be a hopelessly rural corner of the world, thanks to her father’s post at the university in Canberra.  She sees Danny as a sort of kindred spirit: as the lone black face in the prissy girls’ school, she’s a bit of an outsider too.  As the relationship between the two progresses, they face the difficulties of nasty false rumors, strict school rules and priggish propriety, as well as the ugly realities of the world that lies beyond their idyllic, sheltered prep-school existence.

Review If we’re to go by their depiction in recent movies – American Pie, anyone? – teenage boys are infantile, crude, and concerned with little more than ridding themselves of that pesky virginity problem as quickly as possible.  Teen girls don’t fare much better, stereotyped as giggling, superficial, pea-brained little girls dressed in hyper-slutty clothing. Okay, I’ll sheepishly admit to being a sucker for fluffy teen comedies, but there’s something incredibly refreshing about finding a more intelligent, realistic depiction of how it feels to be a teenager – and in particular, two  precociously self-aware and intellectually mature teenagers experiencing first love in all its deliriously dreamy glory. It’s the feeling of perfect balance that makes this movie work so well – it’s poignant without being cheesy, smart without being pretentious, sexy without being overt.  Above all, what’s remarkable is the way in which the race issue is kept firmly in the background – this is not your clichéd white-boy-loves-black-girl story about breaking societal taboos, but rather, a simple love story about two people who just happen to be from different ethnic and cultural backgrounds.  These two have so very much in common, that when the seemingly obvious race differences do come to the surface, it almost feels like a surprise.  Flirting is one of the best stories of first love that I’ve ever seen – a 100% all-naturally sweet story that’s guaranteed not to leave a stickily-cloying aftertaste.

o

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