Film Reviews

The History Boys

• Rating:
• Director: Nicholas Hytner
• Starring: Dominic Cooper
• Details: UK 109mins (16).

"All literature is consolation" is just one of the many classic lines thrown at you over the course of this Grange Hill meets Dead Poet's Society comedydrama. Set in northern England circa 1983, The History Boys follows eight witty, well-read, liberal students as they pursue an undergraduate place in two of the country's leading universities: Oxford and Cambridge. The uptight headmaster, obsessed with the good name his school will get if the boys are accepted, enlists the help of eccentric newcomer Mr. Irwin (Campbell Moore) to give them the necessary coaching, and the boys are torn between their loyalty to the poetry-spouting Hector (Griffiths) and the facts-obsessed Mrs. Linnott (Frances De La Tour).Adapted from Alan Bennet's play, The History Boys is a series of long scenes of debate between a group of characters as they tear apart history in search of a fresh perspective. With so many in the cast, director Nicholas Hytner cleverly concentrates on just a handful and his prime targets are the horny, try-anything-once Dakin (Cooper) and the fey, Dakin-obsessed Posner (Samuel Barnett).It may be a little unfocused, a tad longwinded and too much in love with itself to roll the end credits before time, but The History Boys has the possibility in its script to become a cult classic - something along the lines of Withnail And I. "History is just one f***ing thing after another". Indeed.

Review by Gavin Burke