Visiting St. Trinian's School For Bad Girls

Are you a fan of British comedies? Do you believe Rupert Everett to be a versatile actor and have always wondered what he’d look like in drag? Is your sense of humor a little off? If you answered yes to these questions than I know the movie for you.

Set in the present day at an all-female boarding school, St Trinian's School for Bad Girls proves to remind us that friendships can develop in the strangest of places. With little warning, our shy, sheltered protagonist, Annabelle Fritton (Talulah Riley), is enrolled by her father (Rupert Everett) into St. Trinian’s, a school with a reputation for educating the worst of the worst. Run by her estranged aunt, Head Mistress Camilla Fritton (Rupert Everett), it quickly becomes clear to Annabelle that the school’s broken-down exterior is befitting of the nature of her fellow classmates. You see the students at St. Trinian are not only encouraged to be involved in shady dealings but are educated in how best to go about doing them. Under the guidance of Flash Harry (Russell Brand), the girls have become expert thieves, bootleggers, counterfeiters, prostitutes and such. When it becomes clear that St. Trinian’s will close if the debt with the bank cannot be paid and if education minister, Geoffrey Thwaites (Colin Firth), isn’t persuaded to rethink his decision to shut the school down, the girls must band together to make sure their haven of mischief and misdeed doesn’t become a thing of the past. Can they do it? Watch to find out.

Jointly directed and produced by Oliver Parker and Barnaby Thompson, St. Trinian’s is one of the funniest movies I’ve seen in a long time. Piers Ashworth and Nick Moorcroft have jointly written a story that puts current American comedies to shame. The jokes are sharp and fresh and are executed thrillingly by a cast who knows what they were doing. In dual roles, Rupert Everett is at his best. Though I have never seen the movies associated with this film nor read the St. Trinian cartoons by Ronald Searle, I am aware of their existence and will certainly check them out.

As stated before, this movie reminds us that friendships can be made in the most unlikely of places. For Annabelle, the idea of befriending such unsavory individuals was unthinkable. Yet, once she allowed her guard down and became friends with the girls, she finally was able to find the happiest she had long denied herself. Having been Annabelle at certain points in my life, I know full well the relief one feels when they finally let go of preconceived notions and are able to get to know people for their true worth. Though the message comes in a humorous package, it still remains true and powerful. When we limit our associations to the ones within our comfort levels, we do ourselves and others a disservice. St. Trinian’s is a symbol of the moment we all encounter when our idea of what is normal and acceptable changes, and our scope of the world widens an inch more.

Though St. Trinian’s School for Bad Girls carries a message that should be shared with all ages, its PG-13 rating is justified. There are minor compromising situations and references to items one might not want referenced in front of their small children. Simply put, it is not a children’s movie, but it also isn’t one that teenagers should be banned from seeing. If you’re in the mood for a laugh, I recommend you see this movie. By the way, Rupert Everett doesn’t look half bad in drag.