Wild Child

This film is about a American teenage girl with severe conduct problems. Her father sends her to a British boarding school in order to have her cleaned up.

"Wild Child" is a light hearted teen comedy. The abundance of hair dressing scenes, shopping scenes and dancing scenes is an indication that "Wild Child" is a fluffy movie that goes very well with popcorn. Though Poppy's behaviour is unacceptable at times, the film makes a point in saying that a person who displays bad behaviour is not equivalent to a bad person. It gives hope and support to troubled people who are rejected and disliked due to their bad behaviour.

The plot is realistic and yet dramatic enough to keep viewers interested. The friendships that Poppy created are well portrayed and told. The ending is heartwarming and satisfying. "Wild Child" is a great brain off comedy, and I enjoyed watching it.

I saw this for the first time when I was 11, continued to watch it throughout my teenage years, and now in my twenties I decided to watch it again. Wild Child is simply a happy movie. It's ridiculous and at times embarrassing but it's also funny and wonderful. No matter how young or old I've been it has always left me with a smile on my face. It's very early 2000s and occasionally outdated but brilliant in its own right. Wild Child is a light rom-com with friendship and mischief and if you go in knowing what you'll get you won't be disappointed. In my eyes, this movie will always remain as an instant pick me up, no matter what the critics say.

I guess Emma Roberts' more memorable role was taking on the iconic Nancy Drew character, but now she exchanges those sleuthing skills and good manners for spoilt brat antics. Swinging from one end of the spectrum of an ideal kid to a spoilt and bratty one, her Poppy Moore character in Wild Child is a rich kid who has issues with discipline because she thinks she could get her way with her devil may care attitude and wads of cash. With her relationship with her father going to the doldrums, she gets shipped off to an English boarding school in an effort to be schooled in the prim and proper, and thus sets up plenty of room for your typical fish out of water story.

Naturally as the loner who stands out because of her rather uncouth behaviour and fashion sense, this was somewhat a throw back to The House Bunny, where the protagonist is clearly out of place, and remains to be seen if it is herself who would be assimilated into the norm, or if she could be the trend-setter and begin a serious case of behavioural osmosis.

For starters, this is clearly chick flick territory, with all characters being girls (it's set in an all girls boarding school) and the only male supporting characters happened to be her dad (Aidan Quinn), the school principal's son Freddie (Alex Pettyfer) for romantic purposes, and Nick Frost who cameos as a small town hairstylist. So you can imagine the amount of bitching that would go around in the film, where Poppy offends the head student on her first day on multiple fronts, thereby starting off some serious personal vendetta issues. Or how Poppy is initially unwelcome by everyone in her dormitory because her stubbornness got them all detention, before they decide to assist her in a win-win situation - getting her expelled so that she could return home.

Wild Child is surprisingly entertaining with a good story to tell, even though it's the usual about having friends for life versus the superficial ones that one tend to meet from time to time. I guess for parents this could be one of those child-safe movies to bring their kids to, and hopefully to have some of its positive messages rub off on their kids. Written by Lucy Dahl, daughter of the renowned Roald Dahl, that credit alone provided some interest in this movie, despite the story and plot development being nothing unusual and being very predictable.

But I guess predictability could still work if the ensemble cast delivered their roles convincingly, which they do, and with any movie that deals with friendship and one targetted at children, this is as plain sailing a movie as it can get - nobody dies, everyone becomes friends, tense situations get diffused amicably, and there's plenty of BFF-love to go around.

Poppy (Roberts) is a spoiled rich Malibu teen who has gone too far after playing an over-the-top prank and making her dad (Quinn) snapped. Thus, deciding to send her to an English boarding school for girls. She is, of course, taken in as an outsider, becoming Harriet's (King), the School Head Girl, greatest nemesis in mere seconds. But the headmistress (Richardson) really would like to help her mend her ways. She bonds with her roommates (Nixon, Temple, Wu and Cocker), after a rough start and they agree to help her get expelled so that she could go back home. Of course, cliché as it may sound, these friendship and a crush on the headmistress' son, Freddie (Pettyfer), give her second thoughts.

I can say that this move is like Mean Girls, except the girls aren't as mean. We get an American girl who's ignorant about all-thing Brit (and the other way around). Poppy came to the school overdressed, and thought that somebody will carry her bags for her, and was completely oblivious about the school hierarchy. You might think this is another fish-out-of-the-water type of film, but it's more than that.

The movie is witty, fun, honest, and slightly intelligent enough to make it watchable. It's nothing new, but it's pretty entertaining.

As the movie progresses, we see the character, mostly Poppy, develops. We get to learn why she is this "wild child" in the opening scene, and why she's so mean and ignorant about other people.

It all get slightly predictable towards the end...everything comes crashing down, Poppy's friendship is heading for breaking point, Freddie is angry with what Poppy has done, and she is on the brink of being kicked out of the school. So she only gets on chance to make everything alright again. School movies will do better without this kind of scenes. Anyway, the ending is quite emotional and touching, it'll make up for the rest of the clichéd trip you take since the start of the movie.

OK, so this film isn't going to win any Oscars but it does deliver.

I saw this film this evening with friends (we're 18) and we had a good laugh and a good time watching it. Some of it#s content makes it quite a predictable teen movie but despite this the film is good fun and has some surprise moments.

For those expecting a tween film like What A Girl Wants this is not it! There's a lot of swearing, sexual reference and drinking which is more like the kind of things normal 16 year olds do. This film has more of an edge than your usual teen flick and will definitely appeal to a wider range of ages. So give it a chance, it might surprise you.