Gregory’s Girl – 1981 | 91 mins | Comedy | Colour

Plot Synopsis

There is something cosy Gregory’s Girl, like having an old friend over for dinner. So choc full of lovely little bits. Bill Forsyth‘s mega low-budgeter remains acutely irresistible, mixing first love rituals and the offside trap with loopy charm.

Set around the failings of a useless school football team (“heard they got a corner last week and took a lap of honour”) what plot there is concerns the attempts of gawky Gregory (Sinclair) to earn the affection of star striker Dorothy (Hepburn), who has taken her place in the first eleven. Yet, although the film works perfectly as a straight down the line romance – Dorothy rebuffs Gregory’s puppy dog enthusiasm, passing him onto the quirky Susan (Grogan) – the real heart of the film lies in a myriad of quirky vignettes (the horizontal dancing escapade), winning absurdity (a kid in a penguin suit waddles the school hallways for no apparent reason) and interesting teen characters that are miles away from the stereotypes served up by countless John Hughes movies.

Forsyth peppers the dialogue with quotable gems and funnies, yet never sells short the truthfulness, desperation and small-time pains of adolescence. Indeed, the whole film is engendered with a generous, likeable sensibility that plays delightfully at odds with the concrete comprehensive surroundings. Forsyth also crafts winning performances from the whole of the cast – D’Arcy’s misguided football coach is a delight – with Hepburn, by turns driven and winsome, and Grogan delightfully dippy. Yet, this is Sinclair’s movie, nailing the painful diffidence and petty embarrassments with such likeability that you are prepared to forgive him the slew of awful sitcoms he has served up since. Daft but deft, realistic yet imbued (in its final third) with a midsummer magic and madness, rites of passage – particularly in a British movie have rarely been idealised with such watchable charm.

Review© Ian Freer