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Wild Child (2008)

Director: Nick Moore

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Movie review

From Time Out London

‘That’s the final straw, you are going to England!’ belts out Malibu dad Aidan Quinn as he sends his brat daughter Emma Roberts across the Atlantic for yet another film set at a British boarding school. Roberts’s roller-coaster accent of rising vowels and spoiled ‘be-atch’ attitude don’t go down well among the jolly hockeysticks crowd, but those girls, led by uppity head Georgia King, aren’t so palatable either. It takes Roberts’s level-headed roommates to pesuade her of the benefits of a more agreeable approach to life.

Adult co-stars Shirley Henderson and Natasha Richardson struggle valiantly as a matron and headmistress and Daisy Donovan and Nick Frost have amusing small roles as a teacher and a hairdresser, but young Alex Pettyfer (‘Stormbreaker’) as the headmistress’s dishy son is as wooden as Gordon Brown at a Southwold photocall. The directing by Working Title’s longtime editor Nick Moore (‘Notting Hill’, ‘Love Actually’) shows little knack for comic timing – but the script offers few gags beyond fart jokes and the basest of cultural-clash observations. This celebration of mid-Atlantic compromise is one for the youngest and most forgiving of teenage girls.

Author: Dave Calhoun 2008-08-12 11:09:07

Time Out London Issue 1982, August 14-20, 2008

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User reviews of this film

  • eunice said...
    Posted on Jan 30 2009 05:41 Au contraire. i think this film was brilliant and clever and Alex Pettyfer's acting was in-sync with his role as an english bloke. i like how it's sort of like a new modern version of enid blyton's 'the naughtiest girl' in the school book. i felt that the jokes were snappy rather than lame or crass.
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Wild Child

Cast & crew

Director: Nick Moore

Cast: Aidan Quinn, Emma Roberts, Georgia King, Alex Pettyfer full cast

Genre(s): Comedy

Duration: 98 mins


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