The History Boys

Without making any great claims for this film, I did like it much better than The Dead Poets Society. Nicholas Hytner has effectively transposed Alan Bennett’s play from stage to screen, as he did with The Madness of King George. Cast and crew tossed off the film in the break between its London and (Tony-winning) Broadway runs, so the ensemble has the material down cold. Maybe a little too cold, since the movie lacks the spontaneity of real (or even reel) life, the lines and moments flow a little too smoothly and patly. But the lines and moments are funny and genuine in their own way. We follow eight grammar (i.e. public) school boys from Sheffield who qualify to pursue Oxbridge scholarships, and get an extra semester of coaching from a team of teachers. The boys are well-characterized and differentiated, and the three teachers are strong characters as well -- the aging, portly, poetry-besotted “general studies” instructor who loves the boys a little too much (embodied by Richard Griffiths), the seen-it-all-but-still-cares history teacher (Frances de la Tour, very much like an elder Alison Janney), and the young hotshot scholar brought in to tutor the boys on how to game the system. There are no surprises in the film, and it would have been better if they did not try to insert one at the end, but it is witty and well-intentioned, wised up but not excessively so. (2006, dvd, n.) *7* (MC-74.)