YOUNG BOYS IN LOVE: FLIRTING, THE MIRACLE
Coming-of-age movies normally involved young boys, and their journey often involves falling in love. This is probably why this particular genre of movies has been so derided by critics of late. It often doesn't help that these stories are predictable, and that the "boys" in question are either hormone-crazed idiots or insufferably square. Still, there are ways to do it differently, and John Duigan's FLIRTING and Neil Jordan's THE MIRACLE certainly qualify on that score.
If you ever saw the poster for FLIRTING, you'd see it prominently displayed Nicole Kidman. She's in the picture, and it's a fairly substantial part, but it's not the lead, so don't be misled. Instead, this follow-up to Duigan's THE YEAR MY VOICE BROKE focuses again on Danny Embling (Noah Taylor), an awkward 15 year old in 1960's Australia.
In the previous film, Danny was strongly attracted to the girl who was his best friend, but it was unrequited. Here, at boarding school, he's attracted to Thandiwe (Thandie Newton), a student at the girls' school that's opposite the lake from them, and partners with them on many activities. Both Danny and Thandiwe are outsiders. Danny stutters a lot, is rebellious (he counts Cassius Clay among his heroes), and is shunned by most of his fellow students and over-disciplined by his teachers. Thandiwe is from Uganda, and is only there because her father is posted there. She's also looked down on by the other girls and the teachers (though unlike Danny, at least her punishments don't involve being caned).
It's typical of this movie that the two discover their attraction to each other at a debate, where they in essence argue against their own positions. They discover they're both smart and thoughtful about life, in addition to being attracted to each other physically. And although this is an interracial romance, race hardly comes up, except for when their respective parents meet each other. It's a tribute to Duigan that this meeting is handled without any melodrama.
Most of the other characters in this movie have been seen before - the overbearing teachers, the class jock, the class tattletale - but there are a couple of unique ones. Danny's best friend, for one, counsels him before he goes off to meet Thandiwe, "Remember her needs as well as yours." Then there's Kidman's character (she happens to be very good). She plays one of the senior students at the school, and while she has a stuck-up attitude at first towards Thandiwe, we soon learn she's been secretly helping them out (when Danny is forced to box with one of his schoolmates, she gets her nominal boyfriend to referee to make sure he's not hurt too much). The movie does lag a bit at the end, though the very end, when circumstances from the outside world affect the young lovers, is effective.
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