St Trinian’s

Though it boasts appearances from an impressive selection of performers, including Colin Firth, Toby Jones, and Russell Brand, St Trinian’s has been infused with a hopelessly exaggerated comedic sensibility that effectively (and ultimately) negates its few positive attributes. The pervasive lack of laughs ensures that most viewers will spend much of the film’s running time either rolling their eyes or checking their watch, and it’s worth noting that the relentless emphasis on off-the-wall shenanigans proves instrumental in cultivating an unexpected (yet palpable) atmosphere of oppressiveness. The movie, which follows the ragtag students of the title establishment as they band together to save their beloved school from financial ruin, offers up an almost uniformly unlikable selection of characters and expects the viewer to actively root for their ongoing success, which ultimately proves so difficult that one finally can’t help but cheer on the heartless bureaucrats looking to shut down St. Trinian’s. It certainly doesn’t help that most of the film’s actors turn in unreasonably over-the-top work that inevitably grates on the viewer like nails on a chalkboard, with Rupert Everett, appearing as both a stuffy parent and the school’s harebrained headmistress, offering up a painfully broad performance that easily stands as St Trinian’s most stomach-turning attribute. And although there are a few admittedly clever bits sprinkled here and there throughout the proceedings (eg a dog called Mr. Darcy repeatedly humps the leg of Firth’s character), St Trinian’s is primarily bogged down in lowest-common-denominator type shenanigans that instantly transform the movie into a seriously interminable piece of work.

* out of ****