Product: Flirting [VHS] (1992)
Rating: 5.0
Superb coming-of-age film
Despite the cover art on the DVD case, this excellent film doesn't star Nicole Kidman, although she does give a fine supporting performance -- no, the story belongs to Noah Taylor & Thandie Newton, as the two misfits at two boarding schools in the mid-1960s. And it's a lovely, very funny, poignant story of two similar souls finding one another, and experiencing the joys of first love together. Unlike too many American "teen films," it approaches sex with wonder, bemusement, a touch of uncertainty & and an equal touch of bliss. Loneliness is the undercurrent here, avoided by most of the students who have learned to fit in, but clearly affecting the more sensitive among them. And here's where Nicole Kidman's performance is so good: as an icy upperclass student, she reveals her own insecurities & very human longings in a touching scene of empathy with Thandie Newton, late in the film. In short, a tender & touching love story with two very real teenagers -- highly recommended!