Last night, I watched Flirting, directed by John Duigan. From the poster/dvd cover you would think that Nicole Kidman was the main attraction here, but that wasn't the case. Whatever, sells your movie though, I guess. Hell, Naomi Watts even had a small role, perhaps they could throw her on the box if a special edition ever comes out. Again, I digress...This was a very, very good and suprising movie. I had no idea what to expect coming into this even though it had been recomended to me. The basic story is this, it's 1965ish, Austrailia, boading school, outsider boy meets girl, romance ensues. The boy is an outsider because he doesn't get involved in rugby, he's more of a thinker. At one point in the film he uses the pseudonym Camus for himself. The girl (Thadie Newton) is African from Uganda and faces her own challenges as an outsider for that reason alone. This could have went horribly wrong like so many teen romance/coming of age stories, but it didn't at all. The narration done through the film by the boy lead, Danny (Noah Taylor) sets just the right tone. Race is never an issue between the two leads except for Danny's curiousity to know more of Africa than National Geographic and Tarazan pictures. The few love scenes with the characters were handled beautifully.
Truth told, the first 20 minutes or so, I wondered what I was getting into with this movie, but after sticking it out I definately found myself caring deeply about each of the characters. Apparently there is another movie with Danny in it as well that sorta served as a prequel to this called, The Year My Voice Broke which I definately would want to see, as Danny seems a character worth investing in. Sure, he may not be Antoine Doinel but Flirting endeared me enough to him to want to check out more.
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