The History Boys (based on the play of the same name) is adapted for the screen by its playwright Allan Bennett and features performances by the original Broadway cast. It’s a nice change from the often mutilating stage to screen process that preserves as much theatrical integrity as possible. As a film, it’s a wise and lively production that blends smart dialogue and heavy drama with a never ending sense of whimsy. Its greatest strength is that it’s such a spitfire of a movie that you can’t help but be charmed. This enjoyable energy doesn’t quite survive the full runtime, though. There are some honestly bland moments and a hovering sense of intense intellectualism that sometimes rips the warmth right out of a scene and replaces it with a calculated “gobbet.” I’d wish it to be even messier and more casual in shape and tone, but it’s still undeniably enjoyable even with its flaws.The general premise revolves around a group of students in the 80s striving for acceptance into prestige schools such as Oxford and Cambridge while being taught by the unconventional and somewhat inappropriate Mr. Hector (Richard Griffiths). The school’s bumbling headmaster (Clive Merrison) elects to phase out Hector’s “life lessons” and replace him with an Oxford grad named Mr. Irwin (Stephen Campbell Moore). Irwin brings with him a more modern, test oriented approach to education. The film tosses about all kinds of plot threads stemming from this central story. It touches on youthful angst and adult misconduct as well as the nature of learning. It’s fairly sloppy, but endearingly so.
The cast of young men is a great mix of very honest and authentic looking actors that fit so naturally into their parts that the movie feels slightly like a documentary at times. Frances de la Tour’s performance as Mrs. Lintott, a fellow teacher and confidant to Hector, is also quite brilliant and dryly funny. It’s this rich and beautifully natural sense of humor that flows throughout the film which gives it so much fresh life. Its most sour note is an overly sentimental ending that undercuts the generally unstrained feeling of the drama in movie.
The History Boys has some flaws and some hard to grasp linguistic flares, but there really is some undeniable chemistry amongst the cast and within this story that really makes this a magical film. There’s nothing too extraordinary or ambitious about this movie, but it does what it aspires to do with a great deal of skill and efficiency.
Grade: B
