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Clockwork Mice (1995)

Director: Vadim Jean

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From Time Out Film Guide

A novice teacher, Steve (Hart), arrives at a special-needs school just in time to see one of his charges hurtling along a high-wire and dive bombing kamikaze-style some poor teacher's 2CV. Such 'spirited' behaviour turns out to be par for the course at a school, where survival depends on a certain amount of laissez-faire. Steve's thankless attempts to instill a sense of poetry in the kids look doomed, but when he challenges charismatic ne'er-do-well Conrad (Conroy) to a cross-country run he captures the imagination of the school. The film takes 'difficult' raw material and puts it to the service of middlebrow feelgood entertainment. It mostly soft-pedals the trauma of emotional violence and plays the physical variety for (admittedly black) comedy. Hart is a tremendously vigorous, alert screen presence, and Conroy's bruised sensitivity is equally expressive. Prettily photographed and handled with considerable assurance, the film runs up a head of steam, but not much more.

Author: TCh 0000-00-00 00:00:00

Time Out Film Guide

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Cast & crew

Director: Vadim Jean

Producer: Paul Brooks

Cast: Ian Hart, Catherine Russell, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, John Alderton, Ruaidhri Conroy, Claire Skinner, Art Malik, James Bolam full cast

Duration: 100 mins


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