Too many fans seem to be blown away

The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

Just intense enough to provide a much-needed diversion, just lightweight enough to make you forget about it soon after it’s over. It’s not exactly “good,” per se, but it does what it sets out to do in terms of putting us on edge, which makes it … successful?

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

Coming of age in an austere boarding school must leave lasting impressions since we have so many books and movies about the experience. Here we have two schools on opposite sides of a lake, one for men and the other for women. Instead of the frivolous hanky panky that one thinks might ensue in such a movie, what we get is some real emotion.In one school is Danny Embling (Noah Taylor), an introspective young man who reads Camus and Sartre; in the other school is Thandie Newton (Thandiwe Adjewa) the daughter of a Ugandan diplomat. Danny is an outsider because of his shy manner, gawky build, and offbeat intellectual passions. Thandie suffers racist comments and ostracism from her school mates. But it's not like either Danny or Thandie is a total outcast--they are just not in the in crowd. Well, it's almost foreordained that these two outsiders are going to fall for each other and the movie sparkles in detailing their evolving relationship. The development of their sexual feelings is handled with great tenderness and reflects the awkwardness most young people have in these areas. You have to appreciate the honesty of a film like this.The success of "Flirting" owes a lot to the performances. Taylor is perfect in his portrayal of a reserved, yet rebellious, teen and the attractive Adjewa plays the more mature Thandie with subtlety. Nicole Kidman plays a snobbish, but ultimately likable, classmate of Thandie with such believability that you wonder what she was like when she was younger.The issue of the mixed race relationship between Danny and Thandie is downplayed. There is some circumspection about it, but that aspect of the relationship is never put front and center.This is a sequel to "The Year My Voice Broke" and, if you like "Flirting," you will most likely enjoy the earlier movie as well. Poor Danny seems destined to sit on a rock on the outskirts of town contemplating why the women in his life had to leave him.Director Duigan seems to have a passion for the music of Ralph Vaughan Williams. Here it is "The Wasps" and in TYMVB it is "The Lark Ascending."

I saw this movie today for the very first time and it was amazing. I've never seen a movie so well put together, even young adults as myself can relate or even fantasize with the plot itself. the character of Danny is every mysterious person who is opened to a whole new world by this young African girl. I really like this movie and i wish they made more movies like this now in days. I hope they remake this movie with a modern twist but still with the old charm. I really enjoyed this movie and it seems like a movie that i would watch in English class. I loved it and am hoping to share it among friends.it was great. My cousin also watched it with me and was like, "wow i have a thing for that Danny character!"

Heavens be thanked for how Australians and New Zealanders have revived the acting element of film. Everything in the country seems set up to produce performing artists, even talented writers that understand acting, where Brazil produces soccer players and the US lawyers.Here you have three of our actresses in essentially their first roles. Thandie Newton already at the peak of her screen charm, and Nicole Kidman and buddy Naomi Watts. Set in Australia, written and directed by an Australian, using what I have come to think of as the simple end of an Australian character spectrum.This is a simple "coming of age" story. So simple, you begin with some trepidation. How many of these does one have to slog through to find something new? Well, there's nothing new here, but it turns adult rather quickly toward the end and allows us to leave it without feeling cheap.And isn't that part of the skill of these things, to allow us to visit the insecurities of youth (which we probably still have) and to do so safely and finally to recall the experience fondly (so we will tell our friends to see this movie).Nicole and Naomi aren't any reason to see this. They're simply standard props and rather far from the skills they'd develop. No, it is just the simple arc of the thing. No particular folding (as in "Sirens"), no cheap titillation, just honest, innocent yearning in a hostile world. Hostile large and small.Concerning the titillation, a key plot device revolves around our hero interceding to prevent a compromising photo from being taken. So, a negative fold, if you will, a deliberate statement of flatness. This is accentuated by frequent references to booknames that would be familiar to youngsters as "adult" (Sartre, Camus, Marx) and Sartre's appearance at the boxing match where our hero gets pummeled. Ted's Evaluation -- 3 of 3: Worth watching.

Those who've watched The Wonder Years will recognise the style of storytelling here. The main character is also the narrator, there's an ongoing reference to world events, there are adolescents growing into maturity, and there are some wonderfully rounded and recognisable individuals.Both main characters experience discrimination, including in Thandie Newton's case, racial discrimination both overt and implied - e.g. an Australian lad says to her "Your English is very good", to which she responds "So is yours"!On the surface it's just a coming-of-age school story, but the film continually rises above this to greater heights of poignancy and subtlety.Nicole Kidman is brilliant in the difficult role of the head of school who apparently has it all until, in one of the most moving moments of the film, her true self is revealed.