Gregory's Girl
Tags: whimsical, romantic, comedy

Plot synopsis:
Gregory Underwood (John Gordon Sinclair) is an awkward teenager who plays in his school football team. They are not doing very well, so the coach (Jake D'Arcy) holds a trial to find new players. Dorothy (Dee Hepburn), turns up and, despite the coach's sexist misgivings, proves to be a very good player. She subsequently takes Gregory's place as centre forward, and Gregory in turn replaces his friend Andy (Robert Buchanan) as goalkeeper.
Gregory is all for her making the team, as he finds her very attractive. However, he has to compete for her attention with all the other boys who share the same opinion. Gregory initially confides in his best friend Steve (William Greenlees), the most mature of Gregory's circle of friends, and asks him for help in attracting Dorothy. Steve, however, is unable to assist him.
Acting on the advice of his precocious 10-year-old sister, Madeleine (Allison Forster), he awkwardly asks Dorothy out on a date. She accepts, but Dorothy's friend, Carol (Caroline Guthrie), shows up at the rendezvous instead and informs Gregory that something had come up; Dorothy will not be able to make it. He is disappointed, but Carol talks him into taking her to the chip shop.
When they arrive, she hands him off to another friend, Margo (Carol Macartney), and leaves. By then, Gregory is rather confused, but goes for a walk with the new girl. On their stroll, they encounter a waiting Susan (Clare Grogan), another of Dorothy's friends, and Margo leaves. Susan confesses that it was all arranged by her friends, including Dorothy. She explains, "It's just the way girls work. They help each other."
They go to the park and talk. At the date's end, Gregory is more than pleased with Susan, and the two kiss numerous times on his doorstep before calling it a night and arranging a second date. Madeleine, who had been watching from the window, quizzes him on his date and calls him a liar when he claims he did not kiss Susan.
Gregory's friends, Andy and Charlie (Graham Thompson), are even more inept with girls but see Gregory at various times with three apparent dates, and are envious of his new success. They try to hitchhike to Caracas, where Andy has heard the women greatly outnumber the men, but fail at that as well.

Review: The story is nothing big and dramatic, just a boy liking a girl and learning a bit about himself and about love in general in the end.
The lead character of Gregory is very convincing and very real, you like him but at the same time you can't help wincing a bit at his awkwardness, especially in the scene where he's helping Dorothy out in football by playing goalie.
I love this movie.Its my fav movie of all time ,Everytime i watch it its like meeting an old friend again.It is so rich with subtle humour and possibly every scene makes me chuckle.the teenage anguish is never over played and ever actor in the film has never surpassed there performances in this movie growing up in Scotland myself i still don't feel that the movie is regional and anyone who is able to see it please do so .The clothes are dated but the humour is still spot on.This film is a Scottish gem and should be given more praise.I just cant fault it.If i had to cut my DVD collection down to two gregorys girl and this is spinal tap would be my only choices..
Gregory's Girl makes me laugh every few seconds, and the only mention of a bodily excretion I can remember is Andy's "chat up line" in the school cafeteria: "Did you know that when you sneeze, it comes out of your nose at a 100 miles an hour?" Even though I thought I knew all the funny bits after seeing it so many times, each viewing finds me laughing at things I hadn't noticed before, as well as at all the other bits that never seem to grow stale.There's the occasional Pythonesque line, as the football coach's description of the "two basic skills" of a goal scorer: "Ball control, shooting accuracy, and the ability to read the game." But Forsyth the writer creates a constant stream of little gems that are very much his own style of wry humour, taking real life and stretching it just that little bit further, but not so far that it's no longer recognisable.
But girls know all the best ones.It's fun to see how comic setups and situations from Gregory's Girl come back in Forsyth's Local Hero ("everyone's second favourite film", as Mark Kermode put it), deeper and more fully developed.
John Gordon Sinclair exudes a gawky, gangling charm as the lovesick Gregory and the rest of the cast are perfect.Jake D'Arcy is wonderful as Phil Menzies, the ambitious sports master, the brilliant Chick Murray is the pompous headteacher,  Dee Hepburn is  Dorothy, the confident, dedicated new member of the soccer team, Gregory is besotted with her.
There's just something about the combination of youngster actors who obviously hadn't come from the usual stage schools, the lines from minor characters that you almost miss the first few times (the school reporter - 'I want to interview you and that girl in 4A who had the triplets' - and so many more!) and just the general surrealism (the penguin wandering around the school must surely have influenced the writers of 'Teachers'?) There's a wealth of bizarre characters, both pupils and staff, and for someone who was 13 when it came out, it will never fail to take me back to those awkward teenage crushes and raise a smile.
John Gordon Sinclair and Dee Hepburn were absolutely wonderful in this story of teenage love and the sudden twists & turns that occur when you think you've met THE ONE, but then someone else....
This unpretentious tale of adolescent adoration (all right, puppy love), is one of the purest, most enjoyable, romance films I have ever seen.Unlike American cinema where the main characters would be satisfying raging hormonal urges in gratuitously graphic sexual detail, this film by Mr. Forsythe catches the true essence of "young love" by letting the cast be what they are.
Simply young people with an awkward sense of decency and a genuine curiosity for the opposite sex.This is a must see, especially if you ever thought you might have been in love or think you are now.Try to see the uncut version, as the British film industry has a different sense of 'Family Values' (whatever that is).I love the secondary sub-plots.
I loved the end to the film and whenever i had a date with a girl in the eighties and nineties my mind would flashback to a certain clock tower, a white jacket (without the stain),a beret,whistling, horizontal dancing and kissing with numbers.Unfortunately my dates would never hit the heights of Gregorys date but if i was fortunate to get the girl home then without fail the Gregorys video would be shown to what would normally work in my favour.
Yes, it is a comedy, and yes it is very innocent, but if you have ever been in love or at least you think you have, I'm sure you will enjoy it.I saw this movie on one of those late night showings and having nothing better to do I kept watching.
Somehow It reminded me of my teenage years and how deeply you could fall in love.This film show us that, for a movie to be really good, a large budget is not necessary, not even a bunch of stars (at the time they were pretty unknown, I think), just a great filmmaker and something important to tell, 'That's that.
And why not...he's young, it's a lovely Summer's day in Cumbernauld...it's all there for the taking.If this film doesn't make you smile, you either have no heart or the Scottish accents are put you off.
Set in 1980's Glasgow and featuring a typically acerbic and avant garde Glaswegian screenplay, the film concerns the adventures of Gregory (failed soccer striker cum goalie) and his pursuit of Dorothy, the dashingly glamorous new addition to the school team.
There's some superb performances in this film from the wonderfully frustrated John Gordon Sinclair as Gregory, plus Dee Hepburn as Dorothy the stunning love interest.
'Gregory's Girl' was clearly filmed between Spring and early Autumn and there's one enduringly beautiful scene where Dorothy plays keep-up with a soccer ball, shot against the maternally basking backdrop of urban Glasgow, whilst a haunting saxophone laments and chases the fading daylight, bemoaning the inevitable and eventual closure of our younger years, brief and fleeting as the scene itself.
Admittedly, the plot is strangely lop-sided, with the last 15 minutes proving quite detatched from the rest of it, and a perhaps quite unpredictable ending.But what is great about this film is its depiction of adolescent gangly awkwardness, mostly in the form of John Gordon Sinclair.
The beauty of the hills and the sunsets are left to towards the end, which acts as a great contrast.Certain comparisons might even be drawn with later films like The Rachel Papers and Ferris Bueller's Day Off (ie the role of Cameron), although don't expect either of those to prepare you for the dazzling Gregory!Good to see Clare Grogan pre- pop stardom with Altered Images too....
Favourite bits - probably the little moments that you only spot after repeated viewings; when the teachers spot Gregory weaving across the empty playground when he's late for school - "does he think he's invisible?!", the banter with his pal Steve - "fud, fud, fud, is that all you think about, you're unnatural pal, you're a freak!", Andy & Charlie's doomed attempts to pick up girls, Chic Murray's delightful cameo as the headmaster - especially the piano playing scene, "off you go, you small boys" and watch out for the worst high jumper in the world.
Plus it's a coming-of-age rom-com for ADULTS rather than for teens.Such a wonderful script and characters, and an excellent cast starting with the likes of John Gordon Sinclair (Gregory), Allison Forster (Madeline), and Clare Grogan (Susan).
Watching 'Gregory's Girl' for the first time in over two decades, one is immediately struck by reminders of when it was made: the grainy film, the dreadful soundtrack, the big hair of both its male and female characters.
For at its heart, Bill Forsyth's film captures two eternal realities, the (potentially charming) essential uselessness of a certain sort of teenage male, and the particular uselessness of just about all males when confronted by a sufficiently pretty girl (Dee Hepburn, although Clare Grogan, later a pop star, appears in a secondary role).
As with most British movies, it's shot like crap but you know, it really doesn't matter when the script and the performances complement one another so well.I've grown up with it and still find something to smile about every time, much the same way that I do when listening to Jonathan Richman's mid-80's albums Rockin and Romance and Jonathan Sings.There's a really beautiful balance of knowing and naivety in most of the characters.
I may love me a bit of the old cynical satire, pitch black comedy, gritty drama, and brutal tragedy all the time, but that doesn't mean I am often equally affected by much sweeter, kinder, gentler stories as long as they are done right, and let me just say that 'Gregory's Girl' is a love story that is done absolutely right, in fact, it goes beyond being just 'right', it is simply splendid, spectacular, and beautiful.
This is a highly relatable little movie for almost any adolescent boy who has ever felt romantic feelings (whether he be gay, straight, bi, whatever), and ends with total hopefulness, which is the type of conclusion I may not always seem to go for personally, but by God does it work in a film like this.
Director Bill Forsyth depicts how a young British lad gets true love in a film with football as a key element..
British film 'Gregory's Girl' is about the innocent world of young people who learn about different ways of the world uniquely from their own ingenuous perspective.
Plot focuses on gawky teenager Gregory (J G Sinclair) who becomes infatuated by the latest addition to the school's football team, Dorothy!
The scene in Bill Forsyth's 1981 film Gergory's Girl that goes a long way in cementing just how special, just how close it is to the work of genius, is the one in which, on preparation for a date with a girl, the lead male character is reminded of a joke that is what we perceive as a really dirty and unnecessary one given the scenario.
Whereas many in numbers but lesser in greatness coming-of-age comedies from more recent times enjoy piling on smut and vulgarity, Gregory's Girl is able to establish such a thing exists within the universe of these characters but, crucially, amongst all the funny stuff going on around it, is able to produce laughs out of it without ever actually resorting to it.
This is something more recent films of this ilk do from the off and rely on as a genuine source of humour throughout; without actually getting anywhere.The film takes place in and around a Scottish school and sees youngster Gergory (Sinclair) whittle away his days milling in and around the premises of this school, in which he will go to class; talk to friends and spend a lot of his time playing football.
Things change with the introduction of Dorothy (Hepburn), a girl that stumbles into Gregory's world when it appears she wants to be a member of the football team.
Despite this, football and football practise will take on a more important role for him with Dorothy's introduction to the team when the two items he's interested in most clash.The film's attitude toward gender will see a girl play football to a rather high level and consequently provide us with a male character in the form of Steve (Greenlees) as an individual whom looks as if he's at the top of his game in the art of cooking and culinary activity.
Through Dorothy, he attempts to learn the Italian language by way of joining a class and fast-tracking most of it out of eagerness mixed with desperation; this, as he comes to terms with the thoughts and feelings that accompany wanting to ask the girl out on a date and confines in his younger sister for advice.I think there's real heart in Gregory's Girl, a sweet exploration of a character who seems to fumble his way through life but comes to realise certain things.
As far as coming of age tales that fall into the realms of comedy go, Gregory's Girl has more than enough laughs as well as a genuine fondness for its characters of whom it pays close attention to, indeed enough to recommend over a good number of other films of this ilk..
Gregory's Girl is a poignant coming of age film about a boys first falling in love and how surreal and unexpected that moment can be.
Bill Forsyth has a delightful touch.For those of you interested, John Gordon Sinclair won the British Olivier award (analogous to our Tony) a few years ago for his leading role in the stage revival of "She Loves Me".
If you like British humor, though, you'll love this film, which seems to have been built up into a sort of cult classic on that side of the pond.Gregory, a meek and awkward teenager in Scotland, meets Dorothy at the school's soccer try-outs and falls in love.
As a resident of Cumbernauld, where the film is set, I often feel a nostalgic fondness for Gregory's Girl.
The town is virtually the same as when the film was made 21 years ago; the big clock is still there in the town centre, Abronhill High School is still standing (just) but it is the character of Gregory that really stands out in this movie.
Gregory, played by John Gordon Sinclair, is a gawkish, skinny, tall teenager who is the hapless (and hopeless) goalkeeper of his schools football team.
When Dorothy (Dee Hepburn) insists on playing for the school, Gregory is immediately obsessed with her and awakens lustful feelings never felt before in his teenage years!
But this film is memorable for many other scenes like in the opening sequence where a gang of boys are watching a girl strip through a window - "All that for a bit of tit" says one of the non-plussed kids!
And also the friend who has left school to become a window cleaner, who leaves them with the phrase - "If I Don't See You through the week , I'll see you through the windae"!In conclusion, I would recommend you see this film, if not to remember what it was like being a love struck teenager but just to see some silly haircuts!!.
When one thinks of the best school based films this gem is often overlooked in favour of well known American films which is a shame as Gregory's Girl is just as good.
As soon as he sees her play Gregory falls in love with her and sets about getting a date with her.John Gordon Sinclair does a great job as awkward teenager Gregory and there is a fine supporting cast including Dee Hepburn as Dorothy, Clare Grogan as Susan, a friend of Dorothy's who likes Gregory and young Allison Forster who, in her only acting role, was delightful as Gregory's sister Madeline.
Gregory's Girl shows that a good film can be made on a microscopic budget.
But, although Gregory's Girl is good, I prefer to remain in the 21st Century with regard to films about footballing females and Bend It Like Beckham is much much better..
If you were ever an innocent adolescent and can recall your first infatuation with a girl with a wry smile, then this will make you laugh at yourself and cry at the same time - what more can you ask from a film?
This does not seem the most promising setting for a film, but Forsyth is able to invest the town's bleak modernist housing estates with a surprising amount of melancholy charm.Gregory is a teenage schoolboy who falls in love with Dorothy, the attractive girl who succeeds him as centre-forward of the school soccer team.
Dorothy and two of her friends, Carol and Margo, have conspired to set Gregory up with a fourth girl, Susan, who has always been keen on him.John Gordon Sinclair (Gregory) and Claire Grogan (Susan) have gone on to become well-known members of the British acting profession; Claire also had a pop career as the lead singer with Altered Images.
"Gregory's Girl", however, is not an altogether realistic film, despite its ordinary setting.
"Gregory's Girl" is the film which best captures what it is like to be an ordinary teenager.
While there are adult characters in the film (most notably the coach, who is himself awkward and hardly authoritative), and while we meet Gregory's dad briefly, they come off as backdrop, and the overall impression is that this is like a live-action, Scottish, adolescent version of Charles Schulz's 'Peanuts' movies, where kids run about on their own seemingly at whim after school, but aren't necessarily concerned with being full of destructive mischief given that freedom.
Great acting from a cast of mostly unknowns, a more-or-less aimless story that you don't want to end, and a lovely look back to a time period that I actually miss make this movie a favorite..
I really love this simple, unforced comedy about a boy named Gregory (John Gordon Sinclair) who falls for a straight talking female footballer named Dorothy (Dee Hepburn).
The children look like we did.One thing I've always wondered about...Gregory (John Gordon Sinclair) is attracted to Dee Hepburn, fine, nothing wrong with that.
Gregory (BAFTA nominated John Gordon Sinclair) is the typical Scottish geeky virgin who along with his friends are starting to find out about girls.
It is weird when towards the end Gregory turns his attention to another girl, but it is still a good film.
A simple, dull plot line sees a geeky teenage boy fall in 'love' with some football playing girl.