Themes: Interracial/Cross-Cultural Romance, First Love, Teen Angst
Main Cast: Noah Taylor, Thandie Newton, Nicole Kidman, Bartholomew Rose, Felix Nobis, Kiri Paramore
Release Year: 1990
Country: AU
Run Time: 100 minutes
MPAA Rating: R
Plot
Australian filmmaker John Duigan followed up his captivating The Year My Voice Broke with Flirting. Noah Taylor repeats his "Danny" characterization from the earlier film, while Thandie Newton plays a Ugandan exchange student who attends an Australian girls boarding school. Billeted at a nearby boy's school, Danny finds himself falling in love with Newton, though he is frequently at a loss as to how to express himself. Flirting is the second in a proposed trilogy of John Duigan-directed films revolving around Danny's "awkward" years. Featured in the cast as one of Newton's schoolmates is Nicole Kidman. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Review
A bewitching coming-of-age film, Flirting looks at teenage love and alienation with refreshing authenticity. Free of the syrupy nostalgia and falsely self-assured characters that often define films in this genre, Flirting boasts a script wrought with dry humor and understanding, and thoroughly charming performances from Noah Taylor, awkward and unrepentant as Danny, and newcomer Thandie Newton, resplendent with sass and class as Thandiwe. Also impressive is a young and then-unknown Nicole Kidman, her icy exterior betrayed by a brief yet potent admission of carnal desire. Director John Duigan treats his characters with admirable respect, never stooping to condescension. In so doing, he paints a convincing picture of the struggle to attain adulthood that manages to be both painful and beguiling. ~ Rebecca Flint Marx, All Movie Guide
Jeff Truman - Mr. Morris Cutts; Marshall Napier - Mr. Rupert Elliott; Craig Black - "Pup" Pierdon; Maggie Blinco - Miss Guinevere MacReady; John Dicks - Reverend Consti Nicholson; Judi Farr - Sheila Embling; Jacqui Fifer - Stacey Burt; Kurt Frey - Jean-Paul Sartre; Marc Gray - Christopher Laidlaw; Jane Harders - Miss Sylvia Anderson; Leslie Hill - Greg Gilmore; Gillian Hyde - Dr. Alison Pierce; Harry Lawrence - Motel Manager; Danielle Lyttleton - Jean Thomas; Joshua Marshall - "Cheddar" Fedderson; Gregg Palmer - Colin Proudfoot; Freddie Paris - Solomon Adjewa; Josh Picker - 'Backa' Bourke; Fiona Press - Mrs. Archer; Francesca Raft - Fiona Spry; Malcolm Robertson - Bruce Embling; Lisa Spinadel - Barbara Howe; Femi Taylor - Letitia Adjewa; Naomi Watts - Janet Odgers; David Wieland - "Possum" Piper; Michael Williams - Sonny Liston; Kim Wilson - Melissa Miles
Credit
John Duigan - Director, Robert Gibson - Editor, Roger Ford - Production Designer, Geoff Burton - Cinematographer, Terry Hayes - Producer, George Miller - Producer, Doug Mitchell - Producer, John Duigan - Screenwriter
The film features one of the last appearances by Nicole Kidman in an Australian-produced film before she made her transition to Hollywood; Kidman had previously met and worked with director Duigan on the Australian miniseries "Vietnam."
Plot
Danny Embling, an awkward, underdeveloped teen suffering from occasional bouts of stuttering, attends an all-male boarding school in New South Wales, Australia. The year is 1965 and it has been some time since Danny has had any romantic relationship with a girl (his former love, Freya, from The Year My Voice Broke, left him at a crucial point in his sexual/romantic development). He slowly becomes interested in Thandiwe Adjewa, a Ugandan-Kenyan-British girl (Father Ugandan, Mother Kenyan-British) attending the all-girls school across the lake. Throughout the course of the school year, they foster a budding romance, despite the overbearing regulations inflicted upon them - specifically racial politics (as the couple is interracial) and social conventions (Thandiwe is often regarded by the religiously-influenced authority figures as rebellious and overtly sexual).
Although the story evokes universal themes of romance and love, it also examines the properties of the "Australian character": existential isolation (brought on by both geographical and environmental conditions) and strong cultural ties to Great Britain.
