Gregory's Girl

Gregory's Girl is written and directed by Bill Forsyth. It stars John Gordon Sinclair, Dee Hepburn and Clare Grogan. Music is scored by Colin Tully and cinematography by Michael Coulter.

The perils of school day love get the once over by Forsyth in a film that oozes simplicity of charm and understated warmth. Plot focuses on gawky teenager Gregory (J G Sinclair) who becomes infatuated by the latest addition to the school's football team, Dorothy! (Hepburn). As imbalanced hormones rage and awkwardness takes a hold, Gregory lunges from one sequence to another not getting any help from his equally awkward pals. Everyone, it seems, has their own quirky issues, while Forsyth drops in some delightfully off kilter touches to further emphasise the roller coaster ride of puppy love.

Performances are nailed on perfect. Sinclair proves adroit at physical comedy, his portrayal of shyness and yearning a real treat. Hepburn is deliberately coy as Dorothy, her athleticism to be applauded, and future Altered Images popstrel Grogan leaves a telling mark as the sexy joker in the pack. But it's Allison Forster as Gregory's kid sister Madeline who really is the surprise, precocious and deftly etched into the narrative, it's a key girl role that in young Foster's hands bridges the link between Gregory's emotional chaos and mental happiness.

Irresistible and enchanting movie. 8/10

This is one of the funniest and most warm-hearted films ever! John Gordon Sinclair and Dee Hepburn were absolutely wonderful in this story of teenage love and the sudden twists & turns that occur when you think you've met THE ONE, but then someone else...

Back in the eighties when my family first purchased a (Betamax!) video recorder, I watched this all the time. There's just something about the combination of youngster actors who obviously hadn't come from the usual stage schools, the lines from minor characters that you almost miss the first few times (the school reporter - 'I want to interview you and that girl in 4A who had the triplets' - and so many more!) and just the general surrealism (the penguin wandering around the school must surely have influenced the writers of 'Teachers'?) There's a wealth of bizarre characters, both pupils and staff, and for someone who was 13 when it came out, it will never fail to take me back to those awkward teenage crushes and raise a smile. Well, several smiles actually.

While I'm sure I was a teenager once (my parents will attest to that), I was never a teenager in Scotland. This film makes me wish I had been.

This unpretentious tale of adolescent adoration (all right, puppy love), is one of the purest, most enjoyable, romance films I have ever seen.

Unlike American cinema where the main characters would be satisfying raging hormonal urges in gratuitously graphic sexual detail, this film by Mr. Forsythe catches the true essence of "young love" by letting the cast be what they are. Simply young people with an awkward sense of decency and a genuine curiosity for the opposite sex.

This is a must see, especially if you ever thought you might have been in love or think you are now.

Try to see the uncut version, as the British film industry has a different sense of 'Family Values' (whatever that is).

I love the secondary sub-plots. So, pay close attention.

I've caught this movie a few times playing on Stars in the states, and there is something indescribably charming about it. Maybe I'm biased because I've always loved British movies and television shows, but I found this movie very cute. The story is nothing big and dramatic, just a boy liking a girl and learning a bit about himself and about love in general in the end. The lead character of Gregory is very convincing and very real, you like him but at the same time you can't help wincing a bit at his awkwardness, especially in the scene where he's helping Dorothy out in football by playing goalie. I find this movie very refreshing when compared to teen comedies that are being made nowadays. Gregory's Girl has a realness and innocence to it that is severely lacking in Hollywood now.

And also thanks to whoever posted that the US version had the Scottish accents dubbed. I always noticed there was something "off" about the voices, especially the younger kids and now I see why. I hope someday I can see a copy with the original voices intact.