SpuffyWeb Sadly Over-hyped

Onlinewsma Absolutely Brilliant!

Cleveronix A different way of telling a story

Nayan Gough A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

paul2001sw-1 'The Scouting Book for Boys' tells the story of a teenage boy who helps a girl he fancies run away from home. Ultimately, the unidirectionality of that relationship is to have dire consequences. In many ways, it reminded me of the sort of novels I used to write: the problem is, my novels weren't very good. So you have a naive protagonist; conflicts of interest at first hidden or ignored, later painfully apparent; stylised minor characters who ultimately seem more like the embodiment of ideas rather than real flesh and blood; and a plot that makes sense in outline but doesn't quite hold up in practice, in part because the protagonists seem to be stretched to fulfil its demands, instead of the story feeling like the entirely natural consequence of who the protagonists are. The film is set in north Norfolk: an attractive coast, but I didn't get a profound sense of place from how this movie is shot. The reliably excellent Thomas Turgoose does what he can with the material, but is limited by the lack of depth in the story. In fact, this isn't an awful movie; but it feels like a first time effort, and less than the potential sum of its parts.

richard-810 I have to say that I was very impressed with this low budget Brit movie. When I say 'low budget' incidentally, please don't take this the wrong way and imagine an amateur production with game but low quality cast and poor production values. The cast I thought was excellent, a couple of faces I recognised but otherwise largely unknown to me. The two young leads put in top class performances. The storyline unfolds at a fair pace and the setting – a coastal caravan park/holiday camp – convincing and authentic. I have stayed in such places in my childhood and the movie catches the slightly unreal 'every day a holiday' atmosphere convincingly. One reviewer felt that the movie insulted residents of such places but I didn't see this at all – the people came across to me as pretty much ordinary people for better and worse, which is what they are. The plot develops in a way that was unexpected to me with a shocking twist in the tail. Implausible? Some of the stories that you read in the newspapers are far more bizarre and unlikely, shocking things do happen sadly.Something I find really gratifying about such films is that they prove again that you don't need to spend massive amounts of money on high profile stars and CGI effects to create a really good film. If you get the basics right – talented cast, competent direction and photography and above all else, a decent script/storyline – you can create a memorable and entertaining movie. This is something that French cinema has shown us many times but Brit and US movie makers can pull this off also. Of course a problem with movies such as this is that they don't get the distribution of the big movies, so you'll probably have trouble tracking it down. Keep an eye on the satellite/cable schedules and hope it appears!

kosmasp I'm not comparing the movies here (haven't yet seen the either Kidulthood nor Adulthood), but saying that there is a coming of Age story here. More or less that is, because it could actually also be described as a trip into human psyche and what lies in everyone of us(?). It goes back to the saying "If you love something ..." But what makes this exceptional, are the actors. It is rarely that you see actors that young being that good. You might have seen the boy in other English movies (he has done quite a few things), but I hadn't seen the girl before. And she is really good. Of course the story holds your attention from start to finish which is a good thing too. A dark drama that might just be your cup of tea

Ali Catterall So who was she, the girl you desperately tried to convince yourself was more like the sister you never had? The one who locked you in the toy box of her heart like some dependable old teddy with a glassy stare and a permanently knitted frown, as she parcelled out her favours in front of you? For David (Thomas Turgoose), being that "brotherly" best friend to Emily (Holly Grainger), a girl he's known all his life, just won't cut it anymore. Focusing on adolescent urges turned jealous, possessive and cancerous, The Scouting Book For Boys describes a day-glo dream plummeting into nightmare.As it opens, the teenage pals are depicted at their Norfolk coastal resort leaping between rows of caravan roofs at sunset: a gorgeously photographed shot perfectly encapsulating the giddy rush and risks of youth. For now, everything is ice creams and waterslides, sunshine and sherbet. There's even that Noah and the frickin' Whale hit on the soundtrack, and you can't get sunnier than that. Then things start turning crap: when an unwilling Emily is packed off to live with her divorcée dad, David helps her hide out in a cave on the beach. ('How to hide yourself' being a section in Baden-Powell's near-eponymous handbook.) But Emily's motives for lying low are more complicated than David imagines. And when the truth is uncovered, the film takes a lurching left turn into Hell-by-the-Sea.Director Tom Harper and writer Jack Thorne (Skins) have both dealt with wayward adolescence before, and have proved extremely skilled at getting inside those scheming little brains. If the film's adult characters behave like dangerously overgrown children, the kids think they're grown-ups way before their time. Wearing an expression like a bruised knee, Turgoose continues to build on a diminutive but hugely impressive CV; while Grainger, playing slightly younger than her actual age, and sharing superb chemistry with her co-star, is just brilliant: equal parts girlish, manipulative and naïve. Like its protagonists, this is capricious, nuanced drama; just when you think you've a handle on it, it twists out of reach like a flipping fish. Catch it.