Dartworth

I love teenage boy's Boarding School/Coming of Age films. I guess this came about because of early exposure to the brilliant performances of Parker Stevenson and John Heyl in the 1972 version of John Knowles' novel, "A Separate Peace" directed by Larry Peerce. This is the gold standard of the boarding school-coming of age genre. Through the years there have been many excellent examples of the genre: 1991's Toy Soldiers, 1992's School Ties, Scent of a Woman, Dead Poet's Society, all the way back to 1939's Goodbye Mr. Chips. Unfortunately, the marketing of Dartworth (as typified by the IMDb's plot summary by Melissa Veerhuis)makes the film sound considerably more intriguing and substantive than it turns out to be.

While the cast is attractive, the chemistry between the principle actors is very lacking. One might chalk this up to the milder reputation of Australian film, if it wasn't for the fact that Fred Schepisi directed the powerhouse 1976 Australian film, The Devil's Playground.

Dartworth is neither shocking, powerful or homoerotic which are essential elements in this film's genre. If you are interested in a contemporary boarding school/coming of age film, I strongly urge you rent or purchase the 2008 drama, Teenage Angst, directed by Thomas Stuber. You will have to deal with subtitles, but it is well worth your attention, whereas Dartworth is only a slight appetizer.

The concept behind this film sounds quite interesting: a maverick student joins an exclusive private school and upsets its tradition-bound power structures. It could have been quite good, in an If sort of fashion. But somewhere it all just went a bit wrong.

Ian McFadyen is excellent as the tyrannical teacher nicknamed "The Spider". The film lights up whenever he's on screen, alternately taunting and teasing his students. Liam Nunan gives good value as the misfit catalyst for change, Julian Mitchell. The rest of the cast is a bit variable, but mostly provides adequate support.

Unfortunately the storyline goes off in some odd directions which aren't really believable, and like many an Australian film it doesn't end properly. The editing is a bit lumpy, with odd fades to black here and there (presumably to facilitate a TV screening with ad breaks). The film is obviously shot on the cheap, and it shows in the occasional poor grading of shots. More obviously, one never gets a sense that there's much of a school behind the one senior year the film focuses on, due to a lack of other students and teachers.

Worth seeing once, if only for McFadyen's performance. But I think the director and screenwriter owe us a few R&Rs.