The History Boys

Starring: Richard Griffiths, Clive Merrison, Frances De La Tour, Stephen Campbell Moore, Dominic Cooper

Directed by: Nicholas Hytner

RS: 3of 4 Stars Average User Rating: 3of 4 Stars

2006 Fox Searchlight All Movies

Director Nicholas Hytner brings Alan Bennett's London and Broadway smash to the screen with the original stage actors and brings out the frisky best in all of them. Set in 1983, the story concerns eight students at a Yorkshire school being pressured to get into elite universities. The pragmatic Mr. Irwin (an A-plus for Stephen Campbell Moore) sees passing the entrance exams as performance art. Hector (Richard Griffiths), the general-studies teacher, puts the emphasis on learning - that is, when he's not teasing the boys in class or copping a feel on his motorcycle. Griffiths, an actor of expansive girth and talent, is a dynamo who finds every shade of humor and heartbreak in the role. He's especially poignant in his scenes with Samuel Barnett, as a gay misfit who pines for Dominic Cooper's straight object of lust for wankers. Cooper and Barnett are stars in the making, and Frances de la Tour as the grande dame fed up with teaching "centuries of masculine ineptitude" is a droll, dazzling wonder. The film can't hide its stage origins, and in cutting almost an hour on the journey from stage to screen some resonance is lost. But Bennett's dialogue sparkles and skewers with killer wit. Dig in.

PETER TRAVERS

(Posted: Nov 13, 2006)

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The History Boys

Review 1 of 2

4of 4 Stars

A lovely film that manages to be demanding as well as compelling at the same time. The acting is terrific, across the board, and the script and the telling are often hilarious. It all sinks into predictability every so often, but most of it is grand.

Dec 11, 2006 18:40:32

Review 2 of 2

3of 4 Stars

Made by the same creative principals—Bennett, director Nicholas Hytner, and a superb cast who have now been with their roles for far longer than a term—the film version of The History Boys is a lesser thing, more fixed in space and time and rendered almost unbearably "cinematic" in patches by Hytner's gymnastic camerawork. Yet the ideas and feelings of the piece remain so rich that it almost doesn't matter.

Nov 20, 2006 14:42:33

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