Too much of everything

Pretty Good

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

A tomboy joins the boys' soccer team at a Scottish school, awakening amorous feelings in a gawky boy on the team. It's a pleasant comedy featuring quirky characters and some amusing scenes. The humor is very low key, perhaps too much so, eliciting little more than an occasional chuckle. There is hardly any plot, with the emphasis being on the interaction among the characters. Lacking an interesting story and funny scenes, the film just seems to run out of steam and begins to drag somewhat about half way through. Sinclair is likable as the nerdy hero. This unassuming film marked the first success for writer-director Forsyth.

Only see this sporadically over the years, it pops up on TV every so often.Another reviewer, Colin Liddel, said this: "growing up in Scotland myself i still don't feel that the movie is regional and anyone who is able to see it please do so." I can only agree, I grew up 300 miles south of Colin in southern England, yet this film evokes a certain time, the late '70s/early '80s for me, I feel at home watching it. The school in it could have been my school, it even looks the same. The children look like we did.One thing I've always wondered about...Gregory (John Gordon Sinclair) is attracted to Dee Hepburn, fine, nothing wrong with that. He in turn has Clare Grogan fancying him, and doesn't realise. Again nothing odd about that, its happened a million times before. Thats all right there in the plot, on the screen.But to most blokes of my generation (esp. the John Peel listening types interested in Clare & her band Altered Images) the idea that Gregory would even NOTICE Dee Hepburn with the delectable Clare Grogan around seems bizarre.Was this deliberate casting? That Gregory somehow fixated on Dee and didn't notice the elfin princess Clare? Or was Dee genuinely seen as fantasy material and Clare as the homely girl next door character?

The scene in Bill Forsyth's 1981 film Gergory's Girl that goes a long way in cementing just how special, just how close it is to the work of genius, is the one in which, on preparation for a date with a girl, the lead male character is reminded of a joke that is what we perceive as a really dirty and unnecessary one given the scenario. The lead, sitting there struggling to recall it, suddenly does so and bursts out laughing. Such is the brilliance of the comedy in Gergory's Girl, that one of the best sequences of comedy is, in fact, one in which a joke is established to exist but never revealed thus acting as a moment of comedy all by itself. In this sequence, the boundaries between what can be classed as good, quality coming-of-age comedy and mindless, puerile coming-of-age comedy are established. Whereas many in numbers but lesser in greatness coming-of-age comedies from more recent times enjoy piling on smut and vulgarity, Gregory's Girl is able to establish such a thing exists within the universe of these characters but, crucially, amongst all the funny stuff going on around it, is able to produce laughs out of it without ever actually resorting to it. This is something more recent films of this ilk do from the off and rely on as a genuine source of humour throughout; without actually getting anywhere.The film takes place in and around a Scottish school and sees youngster Gergory (Sinclair) whittle away his days milling in and around the premises of this school, in which he will go to class; talk to friends and spend a lot of his time playing football. Things change with the introduction of Dorothy (Hepburn), a girl that stumbles into Gregory's world when it appears she wants to be a member of the football team. Like her eventual role in Gregory's life, she is clinical and the centre of all the attention in her role on the field, as her striking ability raises eyebrows. Forsyth's film is light-hearted and jovial, taking universal subject matter and looking at a pretty important point in a young man's life whilst opting to journey it down a route of soft core and fairly light comedy whilst systematically dealing with pretty serious issues of gender equality and acceptance. In short, the man pulls everything off rather effortlessly.Indeed, the film opens with a shot of Dorothy jogging but it is only her silhouette by way of a long shot we observe her. If the film revolves around Gregory and his tribulations, then the film does a good job in establishing a sense of distance between viewer and object of the protagonist's desire. This, as the use of a silhouette renders the jogging figure close to angelic, not necessarily a prize that needs to be reigned in, but a figure zipping along at a distance in which that sense of the unattainable and the beautiful are both captured at once. The film establishes Gregory's thinking during the film's point of attack as that of one that isn't necessarily attuned to what it is that's around him, indeed, he likes football and girls but doesn't seem to put an awful lot of thought into them; somewhat dismissive of football as "just entertainment, for fun". Despite this, football and football practise will take on a more important role for him with Dorothy's introduction to the team when the two items he's interested in most clash.The film's attitude toward gender will see a girl play football to a rather high level and consequently provide us with a male character in the form of Steve (Greenlees) as an individual whom looks as if he's at the top of his game in the art of cooking and culinary activity. This having of a male dominate the kitchen space, indeed he corrects a female character on whether it ought to be female dominated, as well as a female do the same thing to a football field could be read into as a going against generic gender roles in society. But the film is more preoccupied with Grgory's plight of discovery, and the little things that come with observing and getting to know the girl more and more. Through Dorothy, he attempts to learn the Italian language by way of joining a class and fast-tracking most of it out of eagerness mixed with desperation; this, as he comes to terms with the thoughts and feelings that accompany wanting to ask the girl out on a date and confines in his younger sister for advice.I think there's real heart in Gregory's Girl, a sweet exploration of a character who seems to fumble his way through life but comes to realise certain things. There is a shot nearer the end which echoes the film's opening, that of a girl shot in silhouette from a relatively long standpoint, only Gregory this time accompanies her in what is an item linked to the very first sequence of the film. With Gregory's presence this time apparent, there is that sense that he's earned the right to share the 'space', which was once seemingly elusive, as these two people are framed in the same manner. As far as coming of age tales that fall into the realms of comedy go, Gregory's Girl has more than enough laughs as well as a genuine fondness for its characters of whom it pays close attention to, indeed enough to recommend over a good number of other films of this ilk.

Made at the time when video shops were appearing by the dozen in high streets all over the UK "Gregory's Girl" was a definite "must hire" for any schoolboy who had ever gazed longingly and hopelessly at some unattainable figure in the playground whilst she totally blanks him and chats unconcernedly to her mates,not knowing she carries his heart in her hands.It is at the same time an evocation of the sweet pain and joy of adolescent love and a grand comedy of young manners. I can see no fault in it despite repeated viewings over a quarter of a century.It is a perfect movie. John Gordon Sinclair,like Henry Thomas in the near - contemporary "E.T." created a nonpareil character,and like Master Thomas,will never be able to escape from it. That great droll Mr Chic Murray gives one of then great British movie performances as the Headmaster whose school,like some huge new - fangled machine,seems to have mastered perpetual motion. "Gregory's Girl" is awash with fine performances,full of the optimism and enthusiasm and joie de vivre of youth and,merely by watching it you can recapture that heady brew for 90 minutes or so.Any movie that can do that for a 66year old is a considerable work indeed.Please watch it.