Wild Child

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.

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.

Come on folks, lighten up here.

Yes... This isn't a deep and meaningful piece of classic cinema... It is a fun "just sit back and have a good grin" film.

I'm afraid that people who get on their high horse about films like this must have gone to the wrong cinema! I am male, in my 40's, have a degree and run my own company... I watched this together with my two daughters (14 and 16) and we all had great fun and a few really good laughs. So no... you don't have to be a 12 year old girl to find something fun in this film!

It is predictable, cheesy and the plot is VERY shallow and weak in most places... But you can't expect more from a film like this.

So if you want to watch this, just turn off your high-brow film critic existence, grab some popcorn and a fizzy drink and have a smile...

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.

Wild Child may be predictable, but what it lacks in substance it makes up in character evolution. It is your basic wild child gets sent away and becomes reformed type of movie, but there lies a deeper meaning hidden in this movie. The poster before me recommended this to children, and I can't help but wonder if that poster was a teen him/herself. Adults will enjoy this movie more than teenagers; teenagers rarely understand coming-of-age movies as they have yet to experience it.

Wild Child is most assuredly a predictable movie, but don't let that stop you. It's also very heartwarming, charming, and may bring a tear to your eye. See it.