The History Boys

Well, so much praise and so many accolades for this - would it live up to all of that? And it's also sort of trendy to like Alan Bennett, but it's also sort of trendy to pan him. So what would it be like? A film based on a play about 8 boys trying for Oxford, the grammar school system of the late 70s, and lots of pretencious stuff about poetry, literature and history? What would I make of it, when one friend had hated it and one had gone straight out and bought the music CD?

Fantstic, that's what I thought. Sort of Dead Poets Society with brains, and Educating Rita with more attitude. Gay characters that are slightly predictable but believable, teachers that are human and also idealisitc, and writing that is so Bennett - witty, pensive and accurate. Films that pull on the emotions are not a bad thing in my book, and this does that extremely well. I'm going to watch it again, very soon.