Flirting

Plot synopsis:
Danny Embling (Noah Taylor), now an awkward, underdeveloped 17-year-old, has been sent away by his parents to the all-male St. Albans boarding school in rural New South Wales, Australia, in the hopes he won’t become a delinquent. The year is 1965 and it has been some time since Danny has had any romantic relationship with a girl (his former love, Freya, from The Year My Voice Broke, left him at the end of the first film). Danny is the butt of jokes because of his stutter and long nose (for which he is nicknamed "Bird"). His only friend is Gilbert.
At a school rugby game, he meets and slowly becomes interested in Thandiwe Adjewa (Thandie Newton), a Ugandan-Kenyan-British girl (Ugandan father and Kenyan-British mother) attending the all-girls Cirencester Ladies’ College across the lake, while her father, a political activist, is lecturing at university in Canberra. They later meet at a debate between the two schools, and covertly during a school dance. She is punished for leaving the dance without permission and is given chores by the prefect, Nicola Radcliffe (Nicole Kidman). Thandiwe is later befriended by Melissa (Kym Wilson) and Janet (Naomi Watts).
Throughout the course of the school year, they foster a budding romance, despite the overbearing regulations inflicted upon them – specifically racial politics and social conventions (Thandiwe is often regarded by the school authorities as rebellious and overtly sexual). After the performance of the musical, Danny introduces his parents to Thandiwe and her parents. They later decide to return to Uganda in response to the political turmoil there. Soon Thandiwe decides to return too, and lies about her true departure date, in order to spend the night in a motel with Danny. They are discovered, leading to his expulsion. Thandiwe writes him regularly from Uganda, but then the letters stop coming. One day a letter arrives from Nairobi saying she is finally safe there.

Tags: romantic, sadist

Review:
This is the best of all the adolescent/coming of age/high school genre films.
His eventual love is a new student at the girls school, she is from Uganda (British educated) and is different enough to be a target of ridicule from her peers.
It is fun to watch, authentic and original at the same time, a coming of age flick in the English boarding school tradition of "Dead Poet's Society" (1989) and "A Separate Peace" (the novel, not the so-so movie).
Noah Taylor stars as Danny Embling, an outsider who reads Sartre and Camus while satirizing the school's empty traditions.
Across the lake is the girl's school where Thandiwe Adjewa (Thandie Newton), daughter of the Ugandan ambassador, is learning to meld with the Aussie pale faces, including a gifted pre-Hollywood Nicole Kidman.Thandie Newton and Noah Taylor, as beautifully directed by John Duigan, are the reasons this film is so good.
Imagine teenagers as witty and poised as say Eartha Kitt and Gore Vidal, and you get a hint of how it's played.Nicole Kidman as the snobby Nicola Radcliffe (the name says it all) manages a subtle supporting role with a diamond-in-the-rough kind of charm and just the right touch of on-screen growth.
I like Danny Embling's line as he deadpans to a re-robing Thandiwe, "They're all funny, aren't they?" Yes, those adults are a little peculiar.This is not unflawed, however.
There's a limit to how great a coming of age, boarding school movie can be, especially when the adults have only scarecrow parts.
Nonetheless "Flirting" is a confectioner's delight, and one of the best coming of age movies I've ever seen..
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..
Taylor's lead role (Danny) is one of the most original I've seen on film -- the school nerd who is really a poet with more character than the rest of the school combined (including the staff).
The only reason I even watched this movie (at first) is because there was nothing else on tv, and I saw from the commercial that Nicole Kidman was in it.
I'd seen Noah Taylor in the Tomb Raider movie and loved his dorky, scatterbrained performance.
I rented the movie on video, and was surprised to find that very little was cut out; just a few slightly racier moments, and a foul word or two, plus one scene at the end was double-shot to have Thandie Newton in a bra and panties rather than naked.
Thandie Newton and Nicole Kidman also do a wonderful job (Plus both are walking dreams) This movie definitely surpasses The Year My Voice Broke.
Of course that's not to say that The Year My Voice Broke wasn't also very good, but this sequel adds much more to the tales that are coming of age stories.
The way Noah Taylor and Thandie Newton react to one another as their characters is exactly the way most of probably wish we could with our own first loves.
Noah Taylor from "Shine" and Thandie Newton from "MI2" and of course Nicole Kidman and Naomi Watts.
Film is typical coming of age story but the unique angle is Newton's character as the daughter of an important African statesman and the result that we find out at the end of the film.
Before Nicole Kidman became an international superstar, she starred in this Australian flick about a romance between a white Australian boy (Noah Taylor, who played David Helfgott as a teenager in "Shine") and an African girl (Thandie Newton, of "Crash" fame) in a boarding school in the mid-'60s.
It sounds like something that could easily be a total cliché, but they do it quite well, developing the characters beyond what we anticipate.The main stars of "Flirting" certainly show the talent that they would bring to their later roles.
Nevertheless, it is an original film which is simply and cheaply made.The first strength of the film lies in the exquisite performances from great cast of the then unknown actors, 3 of whom have gone on to great performances in many other films (Taylor, Newton and Kidman).Secondly (assuming you are over 14 years old), the audience will have a strong feeling of resonation with the subject matter (growing up, alienation the school "norm", being allowed to behave differently etc).
The fact that the film is by a British director about an Australian boarding school probably means that the film has a wider appeal to all anglo-saxon nations.Finally, the humour is understated but engaging.I loved this film on release.
The irreverent Australian teen who survived the first advance of puberty in 'The Year My Voice Broke' finds himself enrolled in a strict, boys-only boarding school and attracted to a demure young girl (played by newcomer Thandie Newton, in a remarkably natural performance) from the equally cloistered girl's academy across the river.
He fact that she's a refugee from Uganda isn't an issue (except to indicate how each is an outsider in their respective schools), and their refreshingly colorblind romance lifts the film above the average horny teenage mating ritual.
Despite fine performances by Nicole Kidman and Noah Taylor in particular, Thandie Newton is the standout star of this film.
She is truly delightful; and anyone who has seen her since, and enjoyed her performances, ought to watch this movie because it demonstrates the range of her talents and how lovely she is.When one sees the "innocence" of a "star-in-the-making" like her performance in "Flirting," one hopes that she will display the same wonderful qualities throughout her career, and not become "Hollywood-ized." Hopefully some modicum of her beautiful innocence will remain, always.I have given this film a 9-star rating because of her!.
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.
When I read the plot line, my first reaction was "How many times can they do this plot!"  This is the story of a young man and woman who become romantically interested in each other in a prep school in Australia.
Flirting is about a young, interracial couple (African girl and white American boy) experiencing love despite the obstacles placed before them.
Many of the characters are complex and it is interesting watching them go through the experiences of youth as they come to know love and themselves..
In that respect, the film is better because, for once, the youngsters once characterized by Anthony Michael Hall and Shirley Temple suddenly become introspective humans, not cartoons.Danny Embling (Noah Taylor) is a gangly 17-year-old with a stutter to get over.
They've never felt love like this before, and they're going to make it count for the few months they have together.The majority of teen movies believe they have to be self-deprecatingly funny or overly simple to be successful, completely unaware that purity is ultimately more winning than materialistic quotability.
A movie like Flirting vibrates with poignancy; in the process, I connected with its sensitive characters and, eventually, built enough of a relationship with them to a point where I felt the need to compare their hesitations and choices to my very own life.
Duigan watches them move and applies their burgeoning ideals to even the hardest of moments; scenes, like the closing one (in which Danny and Thandiwe spend their last night together in a local hotel in order to properly say goodbye), defy expectations through their mannered receptiveness.A film like Flirting is easy to hold close to the heart because its conflicts have been felt by all.
(It also made stars out of Newton and Nicole Kidman, and kickstarted the careers of Taylor and Naomi Watts.) Read more reviews at petersonreviews.com.
the character of Danny is every mysterious person who is opened to a whole new world by this young African girl.
My cousin also watched it with me and was like, "wow i have a thing for that Danny character!".
Bullying, love, sex and even racism in a film that shows Nicole Kidman in one of her first roles.
Set in boarding schools, one all girls, one all boys, across the lake from each other, Noah Taylor(Tomb Raider), meets and falls in love with the new black girl from the girls school.
Since spending a great year in Australia I always try to watch any Australian movie I find, and I've been nicely surprised with how many good movies come from there.
"Flirting" is a lukewarm sequel and another chapter in the life of writer/director Duigan's character Danny Embling (Taylor) who falls in love with a beautiful African girl (Newton), both residents of his and hers Aussie boarding schools.
A coming of age flick, this restrained and pleasant love story treads softly and with tenderness, ignoring its potential for sexationalism, as it focuses on the young racially mixed couple in and among just so much period and boarding school filler.
It really was as if I was 18 again.It's worth mentioning that Thandie was only 18 when this film was shot in 1990; and her co-star Nicole Kidman wasn't much older than that either.
In this sequel to "The Year My Voice Broke" we find Danny facing adulthood (and it's less than attractive face) at an English boarding school.
Basically, Thandie Newtons character has an unlikely crush on a boy from a boarding school across the lake.
This film takes place in rural Australia in 1965 at an all-male boarding school with a young man named "Danny Embling" (Noah Taylor) recounting what his life was like during this time.
As it so happens, while watching a rugby game with his good friend "Gilby Fryer" (Bartholomew Rose) Danny just happens to meet an attractive African girl named "Thandiwe Adjewa" (Thandie Newton) who attends the all-female boarding school across the lake.
Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that this was a good "coming of age" film which successfully dealt with the emotional attachments of two people for one another against a backdrop of racial prejudice.
That being said, although I liked the performances of both Noah Taylor and Thandie Newton, I must admit that I thought the ending could have used a bit of improvement.
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.
Noah Taylor and Thandie Newton, very young at the time, are both impressive and the chemistry between them feels right.
Anyway, it has the feel of a book movie, one of those rare films with unique and real characters and real situations.The basic story is of a "forbidden love" between a boy and a girl from different boarding schools "run by former Gestapo officers" as the lead describes their schools.
Basically something like frustrated nuns with no Christian moral are running the schools, forbidding any real display or opportunity for affection.It is a very cute movie, with a young Nicole Kidman in a secondary role.
This is a beautiful coming-of-age movie set in Australia.
Thandie Newton has really done an excellent job with her character, especially considering the fact that this was her first movie.
And Nicole Kidman, ever excellent as a snob is totally at home in her role, making us actually like her by the end of the movie!
What makes it different is the way it has been handled, the relationship between the protagonists(Danny and Thandie N's character), the fact that it is a period movie and its setting.
The characters, particularly Noah Taylor's portrayal of Danny Embling and Thandie Newton's Thandiwe, were extremely appealing and likable.
At the female  boarding school across the lake, Thandiwe, as South African girl, finds  herself facing similar alienation, but for different reasons.
(-I should add  that this character is played by Thandie Newton, who lends an innocence  and implied wit to the screen that she regretfully hasn't recreated  since this role.) I realize that the "outcast boy meets outcast girl"  (-with racial undertones) plot line has been done before.
Nothing great about this film about teen love.Actually preety bland although done with class and talent.But the reason this movie is highly regarded is becouse it is a shining example of what Hollywood must learn to go back to.More down to Earth stories and screenplays.More wine and less soda please.That is the yearning of people with intelligence and taste of a higher level.The U.S. has fer better talent than Australia and other countries and yet those countries can create quality simple movies such as this one due to the producers taking the correct path.Very good coming of age genre film.Tastefully done but could have been much better with  better cinematography and a better ending.......
Danny Embling (Noah Taylor) is a student in an all-male boarding school.
Thandiwe Adjewa (Thandie Newton) is the new girl and she's bullied for being black.All the characters are so ugly in this movie.
I didn't really expect to like it all that much, but I must admit that it was a lot better than I first thought.In the 1960's Danny has been sent to a boarding school, where he becomes the target of bullies and sadistic teachers.
The acting by all actors, so not alone by the young Nicole Kidman is good and the story is nice.
Overall this is a nice movie that offers enough of good things like humor, drama, good acting and a nice story, to keep you interested until the end.
Australian college student film, white/black love affair, an early Nicole Kidman film..
He takes a liking to this dark student (Thandie Newton) from Uganda, and the rest of the film has them sneaking off at night to meet and "flirt." One guy to Thandie, "Where you from?
I do hope the best is yet to come from these fine actors and I'm sure their futures are bright.Much has been made of Nicole Kidman in this film but really she's only a secondary character as well as the young Naomi Watts.
I wish Hollywood would stop looking at this film as a Nicole Kidman vehicle when truly Taylor and Newton deserve the attention for this early work.This movie is also beautifully shot, especially the scenes when Danny rows his boat over the river by moonlight or watching the two of them skim rocks over the water surface or Danny at the end, reading Thandie's letter on the windy rocks and the sky suddenly clearing up on him.
At the very end Danny come to the very mature realization on the transcendent nature of true love, something which I don't think he understood in "The Year My Voice Broke".I actually went out and got this film on DVD and never tire of watching it from time to time, a sign of great film.
So it's not really just a "teen" movie, I think just about anyone who has had these experiences can appreciate this gem of a film.Do yourself a favour and try finding a copy, you won't regret it..
The TV guide summarized the plot something like: "Lonely Australian boy falls for Ugandan girl in sequel to, 'The Year My Voice Broke'".
Those films are less likely to wallop their main character because of his own foolishness; Thandiwe warns him against it, as does Gilbert (who has thoughtful advice for all sorts of situations), but Danny is compelled anyway, and is beaten to a pulp.
However, due to the extreme curiosity concerning sexuality and its subsequent hormonal antics, one early relationship manages to develop between the Australian Danny Embling (Noah Taylor) and Thandiwe Adjewa (Thandie Newton), who is born of a Ugandan father and a Kenyan-British mother.
Noah Taylor ('Shine') and Thandie Newton ('Mission: Impossible II', 'Crash', this being her first acting job) already show incredible potential which, like most good, young actors, seems to entice the viewer on a far higher level than a lot of their later, 'adult' work.
The supporting work by, among others, Nicole Kidman (at the age of 24) and a nearly unrecognizable Naomi Watts provide solid reasoners during the unfolding love story.
Coming of age in an austere boarding school must leave lasting impressions since we have so many books and movies about the experience.
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.
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.
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.