Wow, only 31 IMDb votes before mine and no comments. Leave it to AFI to dig up obscure foreign titles. Still, an 8.7 is nothing to sneeze at, so my parents and I went for it.
Narrator Ned, at 16, wishes he'd be allowed to drop out. Anyone at his boarding school who doesn't love rugby, such as himself, is an outcast subject to anti-gay slurs, and administrators do nothing to make outcasts' lives easier. He prefers to keep to himself, cheating on assignments to retain plenty of time to do basically nothing. When he gets a roommate, Conor, who has been a rugby star elsewhere and promises to be one here, Ned thinks his luck just got even worse. But Conor isn't all he pretends to be, and they do bond over music. Furthermore, Dan Sherry, a new teacher who combines strict discipline with relative coolness, encourages his students to be their best. If only the rugby coach saw things his way...
I mentioned "anti-gay" above for a reason. I'm not quite sure how many characters are gay or bi, but they're certainly not open about it most of the time. That fact plus the absence of visible modern technology makes me wonder what decade the story takes place in.
Between certain directorial choices and the exaggerated qualities of the school body, I'm tempted to add "comedy" to the labels. Thinking back, however, I find that only a few moments actively attempt to be funny, and they're mainly in the first act. The rest is only uplifting at most.
You might say that Mr. Sherry is a slight subversion of the inspiring teacher archetype. For all his good points, he gives a tip that Conor does not accept as it comes across as hypocritical. Still, they remain on good terms -- more consistently so than Conor remains with anyone else.
The two lead boys win our pity about equally. Both partly bring their woes on themselves, but the jerk jocks, not least the poorly rationalizing coach, have to take the bulk of the blame. Even they are not irredeemable. Neither is the principal, who, while neglectful, doesn't care about matters of sexual orientation.
If you're not big on LGBT films, might I assure you that there are other things to appreciate herein. Besides, the key moral isn't "Tolerate homosexual behavior"; it's more a combination of "Be yourself" and "Don't let differences get in the way of a good friendship." Indeed, Ned has to learn that the school rugby team is "his" team as long as his friend is on it. I wish I'd learned something like that long ago.
The ending gets predictable, and not just in a sporting event way. Nevertheless, we were all glad to have watched.
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