Dom Robinson reviews

Distributed by
Film Four

Cat.no: VCD 0039

Cert: 15

Running time: 111 minutes

Year: 1999

Pressing: 2000

Region(s): 2, PAL

Chapters: 21 plus extras

Sound: Dolby Digital 2.0 (Dolby Surround)

Languages: English

Subtitles: English for the hard of hearing

Widescreen: 1.77:1 (16:9)

16:9-enhanced: Yes

Macrovision: Yes

Disc Format: DVD 5

Price: £19.99

Extras : Scene index, Trailer

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Director:

Bill Forsyth (Being Human, Breaking In, Gregory's Girl, Local Hero)

Producer:

Christopher Jones

Screenplay:

Bill Forsyth

Music:

Michael Gibbs

Cast:

Gregory Underwood: John Gordon Sinclair (The Brylcreem Boys, Erik The Viking, Gregory's Girl, Local Hero, TV: An Actor's Life for Me, Hot Metal, Loved by You, My Summer with Des, Nelson's Column)
Frances: Carly McKinnon
Fraser Rowan: Dougray Scott (Ever After, This Year's Love, Twin Town)
Bel: Maria Doyle Kennedy (The Commitments)

Gregory's 2 Girls is the sequel to Bill Forsyth's original and excellent film, Gregory's Girl, which was released in 1981 and this new film is set twenty years later where Gregory Underwood (John Gordon Sinclair) is no longer a pupil but now a teacher at his old school. Society has changed a lot though in that time - everyone has a mobile phone and everyone suspects that the teachers are always getting up to something with the pupils.

His fascination with schoolgirls is still there though and although he dare not breach the teacher-pupil relationship, he happens to lust after a short, ginger-haired girl called Frances (Carly McKinnon) and at the same time a colleague, Bel (Maria Doyle Kennedy), is lusting after him but it appears an unrequited love. The question is: he has to end up with one of the girls but who will it be?

The problem with this film is that after the initially-interesting promise of turning the original film's plot on its head and making Gregory a teacher, then sandwiching him inbetween two girls to see which one he'll choose - and a dalliance with the younger one would mean the end to an illustrious teacher career - Forsyth throws in a completely unnecessary plot about Frances and a boy from the school, Douglas (Hugh McCue), finding out that a local company has been up to no good and, would you know it, it is run by Gregory's best friend, Fraser Rowan (Dougray Scott), which is meant to add tension to this plot device.

It doesn't though. It just gets in the way. The success of the first film lay on a good and well-written storyline about a young man finding love in the place where he expected it the least - not in the arms of ex-Crossroads actress Dee Hepburn, but in those of current VH1 VJ, Clare Grogan, via a third party.

So what has happened to Forsyth's ability to take a situation and create an engaging watch? Who knows? One thing I do know is that if I was a teacher and any of my pupils suspected my best friends of dodgy dealings I'd ignore a kid over someone I'd known for most of my life and the revelations and repercussions brought to light by Rowan and his company are done in as predicatable a fashion as is possible. A foreigner called Dimitri (Martin Schwab) is also thrown into the mix but I was past caring as to his presence here.

Similarly, over halfway through the film, after rejecting Bel's advances beforehand because he can't stand her whining, he thinks nothing of jumping into bed with her for a quickie, although I wouldn't touch her with yours.

It's not all doom and gloom though. The first 20-30 minutes is worth a watch as long as you don't expect too much to follow and certainly nothing to match the prequel. Also, there are some funny moments brought about by misconceptions about what Gregory's been up to with 16-year-old Frances and a first-rate scene where he has to explain to the headmaster, police and Frances' father about what they were up to, which quickly descends into farce as Gregory's fast - and incoherent - talking gets him into trouble.

Oh, and when the subject of Italian language crops up, he just drops in the only phrase he learned in the first film, "Bella Bella", but that's about it.

The picture quality is fine most of the time and a lot of the film looks full of brilliant, stark colours, but artefacts are evident on occasion. The disc is presented in an anamorphic 16:9 ratio and the average bitrate is a middling 4.78Mb/s, occasionally peaking over 7Mb/s.

The sound quality is also okay, but not outstanding. It's presented in Dolby Surround and given that VCI usually get a DD5.1 soundtrack if created, I can only presume that one was not made for this film.

Extras :

Chapters and Trailer :

Languages/Subtitles :

Menu :

Overall, if, like me, you're a big fan of Gregory's Girl and have more than a passing interest in what happened next, then at the very most make this a rental choice but expect to be underwhelmed and to wonder how Forsyth managed to take a good idea, yet make such a threadbare film.

FILM CONTENT 		: *
PICTURE QUALITY		: ***½
SOUND QUALITY		: ***
EXTRAS			: *
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OVERALL			: **

Review copyright © Dominic Robinson, 2000