THE SCOUTING BOOK FOR BOYS
UK, 2009, 93 minutes, Colour.
Holliday Grainger, Thomas Turgoose, Rafe Spall, Susan Lynch, Steven Mackintosh.
Directed by Tom Harper.
A tantalising title – and audiences will need to be attentive to notice the copy of the book in the cave sequence in the middle of the film. The setting is the Norfolk coast, a trailer park, the cliffs and the beaches – filmed very attractively and, at first, very sunnily. And we are immediately introduced to two young teenagers, David and Emily, sharing their friendship and their joy in each other's company, part frolicky, part mischievous. The two young stars are naturals and we believe that they are their characters. Holiday Grainger is Emily and Thomas Turgoose (from Shane Meadows' This is England and Somers Town) is David. They live in trailers, David with his neglectful pub entertainer father and Emily with her slatternly mother (Susan Lynch). Emily has also taken a shine to the young security man (Rafe Spall).
Emily clashes with her mother and runs away with David's help and connivance. As things begin to become more serious, the police (with Steven Mackintosh imagining he is a big fish officer in this small pond) organising searches.
Now we wonder where this is all leading. Emily is very much in control of the situation, full of bravado but also naïve, but she also depends on David. He is a boy with something of a hang-dog character (and naïve puppy love) whose generally unsmiling face is somewhere between dour and melancholic.
While the film effectively creates the atmosphere of life within this rather enclosed community, it leads us into darker areas, especially for David and the consequences of his love for and devotion to Emily.
Well-crafted and with interestingly developed characters, it is an ultimately disturbing experience.
1. A British slice of life?? The picture of adolescents and their problems? Parents? Divided families?
2. The title, its use, ironies?
3. The Norfolk locations, the caravan, the town, the shops, the countryside, sea, cliffs and caves? Atmospheric? The musical score?
4. Portrait of David and Emily, their ages, their friendship, David’s devotion to Emily, at play, jumping on the roofs of the caravans?
5. Emily’s mother, Sharon? The shop, drinking, relationship with her daughter, her former husband? Jim, his role in the, entertainer, his fathering of David?
6. Emily, her disappearance, hiding in the caves? David and his bringing her food? The posters around the town? The concern of the parents? The investigations of the police, the officer being rather puffed up, interviewing David? The rumours about Steve, his role as managing the caravan park? The discovery of the letters?
7. The effect on David, finding Emily pregnant, the letters, burning them, planting incriminating evidence against Steve? Phoning the police anonymously?
8. Steve, his character? The eventual burning of his caravan, Sharon leading? The reality of his impregnating Emily? The difference in age and the criminal aspects?
9. David, his passion about Emily, her reaction against him, spurning him, his breaking her leg, her pain, screaming, his leaving her in the cave?
10. David return, finding that Emily had drowned, take her body out of the cave, taking it out to sea?
11. How insightful film about adolescents, friendships, dependence, hurt, violence and repercussions?
