4:04pm Thursday 14th August 2008
Comedy/Drama. Emma Roberts, Kimberley Nixon, Sophie Wu, Linzey Cocker, Juno Temple, Alex Pettyfer, Natasha Richardson, Georgia King, Shirley Henderson, Aidan Quinn, Eleanor Turner-Moss, Ruby Thomas.
GIRLS just wanna have fun in Wild Child, a culture clash comedy which dons similar narrative garb to St Trinian's, transplanting a fashion-obsessed American teenager to the dusty corridors of an English boarding school.
At first, new girl Poppy - played by Emma Roberts, niece of Hollywood superstar Julia Roberts - rages against centuries of tradition, taking one despairing look at her stuffy surroundings and bitching: "What is this place, Hogwarts?"
She soon learns to look behind the draconian rules and unflattering grey school attire, and finds camaraderie where she least expects it, building to a rousing finale that suggests the British can't have fun without guidance from our Transatlantic cousins.
Screenwriter Lucy Dahl sketches characters in broad strokes, consigning realism to detention for the sake of giggles or tension.
The film pays a cursory glance to themes of grief and bullying, but not to the extent that occasional tears dampen the underlying mood of optimism.
Meanwhile, the first seeds of romance give bloom to a pleasantly chaste relationship between the heroine and her suitor, who has clearly been dipping into his mother's Mills & Boon when he gushes, "Every day I'm with you, I keep catching my breath."
Either that or her perfume is provoking an asthma attack.
Wild Child is a modern day fairy-tale that doesn't stray from the path of predictability, signposting every narrative twist.
For example, when someone warns Poppy to log off her computer session in case another pupil uses the account to send malicious emails, there are no prizes for guessing what happens when she forgets.
Roberts is incredibly unsympathetic for the first half of the film but somehow wins us over as Poppy transforms from Malibu Barbie into brunette team player, on and off the lacrosse pitch. Meanwhile, Nick Frost scene-steals as the sleepy town's outre-camp hairdresser.
3 stars
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