Flirting (film)

Plot

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.

Production

The script was written before The Year My Voice Broke.

Although the story evokes universal themes of romance and love, some say that it also examines the properties of the "Australian character": existential isolation and strong cultural ties to Great Britain.

In 2011, actor Thandie Newton revealed that she began a six-year-long relationship, starting at the age of 16, with John Duigan, the director, after auditioning for the film.

Flirting features one of the last appearances by Nicole Kidman in an Australian-produced film before she made her transition to Hollywood (though she would return in later years to act in movies for director Baz Luhrmann); Kidman had previously worked with director Duigan on the Australian miniseries "Vietnam."

Locations

The movie was filmed on location in Sydney, Bathurst, and Braidwood, New South Wales, including scenes at St Stanislaus College in Bathurst.

Music

The song "With a Girl Like You" is actually out of period, not being released until August 1966.

Box office

Flirting grossed $1,655,044 at the box office in Australia and $2,415,396 in the USA.

Reception

The movie was widely critically acclaimed. It featured on Roger Ebert's Top 10 Best Films List of 1992. Later it was ranked number 46 on Entertainment Weekly's list of the 50 Best High School Movies.

The New York Times film review of 6 November 1992 commented:

There is a kind of painless calm about "Flirting." The film is simultaneously attractive and just a little dull. Mr. Duigan avoids melodrama, which is all to the good. Yet his gift for the acutely observed commonplace detail is neither strong nor original enough to transform the movie into something comparable to so many similar, better films. The best things about "Flirting" are the performances. Ms. Newton is delightful as Thandiwe, who is far more sophisticated than Danny and wise enough never to let him know it. Mr. Taylor is also good, although the troubled Danny is not an easy character to play. He's virtually the generic artist-as-a-young-man. Nicole Kidman appears in a supporting role as one of Thandiwe's older classmates, who is less of a snob than she first appears.

The Washington Post of 20 November 1992 commented:

Awards

The film received the following 1990 AFI Awards:

The film was also nominated for the following 1990 AFI Awards: