WILD CHILD
US, 2008, 98 minutes, Colour.
Emma Roberts, Aidan Quinn, Natasha Richardson, Georgia King, Shirley Henderson, Alex Pettyfer.
Directed by Nick Moore.
If you are a member of the targeted teenage audience, you will probably have a completely different reaction to the film from that of parents – and of those even older. Here was Material Girls become Mean Girls and go to St Trinians until our wild child becomes a perfectly responsible young miss who has changed Malibu pampered self-centred hedonism for the discipline and sporting skills of a British private school lady.
Older audiences will have mood swings, especially if they are not sympathetic to presumptuous Americans who assume that their affluence is the only way of life and are arrogantly insensitive to other cultures and styles. Poppy (Emma Roberts, Eric Roberts’ daughter) is an unbearable sixteen year old with a gaggle of hanger-on mindless friends who is resentful of her father (Aidan Quinn) after the death of her mother. She is brazen, he is exasperated and packs her off to Abbey Mount in England as a boarder, where nice but disciplined Natasha Richardson is the calm, non-negotiating headmistress.
Moods get worse as we see Poppy bring all her Yankee bumptiousness to the school, the girls, the staff and the rules.
Of course, we know that she is going to transform for the better by the end of the film but we do not realise she will go through the rebel stage (minor St Trinians’ misbehaviour) which makes us emphathise with her father’s exasperation.
Gradually, she transforms, getting the dorm room girls on side, and confronting the impossible head Girl who has her yes-girls in tow and moves through the students aping royalty. And we know she is going to get her comeuppance (Americans can change, the Brits just get their comeuppance).
By the end, Poppy is so good at La Crosse (and discovers her mother was captain at the school 30 years earlier), so repentant of her misdeeds, so becoming in her uniform that we are prepared (or are supposed to be prepared) to forgive her everything.
1.Americans, teenagers, Mean Girls, Material Girls? A school film?
2.The title, Poppy and her wildness, at home, at school, the changes?
3.Popular sentiment of the wild girl, the rebel, her being challenged, learning, changing?
4.The Malibu princess, her lifestyle, wealth, spoilt, luxurious home, the beach, hedonism? Her relationship with her father, her dead mother? Her getting her friends, taking the clothes and the possessions of the girlfriend, diving into the water? Her discussions with her sister? Ruby and Roddy? Her being brazen? Challenged by her father?
5.To England, to the school, Abbey Mount? A proper school, the countryside, the girls in their uniforms, Harriet as the head girl holding court, the principal and her charm and strictness, no negotiations? Her father leaving her there? Her discovering her mother’s photo, captain of the lacrosse team? Her tantrums, her being a snob, moody, self-centred? Kate and her offer of help? The other girls in the room? The wet trunk? Matron and her strictness, taking the mobile phones? Trying to settle in or not?
6.The classes, the translation, the eccentric teacher? The sports, the sports mistress and her attraction to the teacher? Meals in the dining room, grace, her Buddhist chant?
7.The principal and the order of the school, discipline, the meeting with Poppy after the fight with Harriet, her wise words, confidence in Poppy’s character? Freddie as her son? The fire, her talks with Poppy, Poppy confessing? The trial, her presiding, her irritation with Harriet, the decisions? The final lacrosse games?
8.Freddie, his story, with the girls, Harriet and her crush on him, the dance, Poppy, in the bath and Poppy coming in and his advising her how to get out? The outing, the kiss? His upset at the email? The reconciliation?
9.The group of girls in the room, their antagonism, suspicions, very British? Combining to help Poppy be expelled? The various plans, the mishaps, going to town, shopping, the clothes, the dance, the kiss with Freddie? Discovering the emails? Their being hurt? Insulted? The solution about the time of the sending of the emails?
10.Harriet, her background, the pheasant, her minions, her regal manner, a snob, at sport, discipline, letting the bucket of water fall on Poppy? The antagonism, her doing the emails, setting the fire?
11.The fire and the drill, the real fire, Drippy being missing, Poppy to the rescue? Her being in the room, with the lighter, her phone call to Ruby, disillusionment with Ruby and Roddy? Ruby and her rejection of Poppy?
12.The decision, the confession to the principal? The consequences?
13.The court, the trial, Harriet and her speeches, objections? All the girls saying that they were present? The mistake by Harriet about the lighter, the exposure?
14.The lacrosse games, Poppy and her joining in, her skills, the photo of her mother, her father being present, the victory, morale and the cheerleaders’ dance? Her reconciliation with her father? Her transformation? Yet the coda of the film and luxury in Malibu?
