Annabelle Fritton joins St Trinian's, a school for 'young ladies' that prides itself on the anarchic doctrine of free expression. Fritton struggles to fit in at first, but manages to win them over as all the girls band together to try and save the school from bankruptcy.
Okay, so 'St Trinian's' is a pretty awful film, nobody is going to argue that. It's unashamedly predictable, full of stereotypical characters and clichéd scenes and sequences. At every turn, the film gets more and more absurd, and I found myself shaking my head continuously.
But here's the thing: as awful as it is, there's something about the film which stopped me from hating it. Because, to be fair, it was made to be awful. 'St Trinian's' is a good old-fashioned British pantomime on the big screen. You have the man in drag, you have the overly-stereotyped characters, you have the completely ridiculous story where nothing makes sense. Perhaps the only thing missing were songs but, other than that, this may as well have been a panto.
More than that, though, what endears me about the movie is just how much British talent is on offer. It's like a who's who of young British actors – Talulah Riley, Tamsin Egerton, Lily Cole, Juno Temple and Gemma Arteton to name just a few – all given their time to shine and doing a good job. Egerton, in particular, is excellent as the stupid blonde, getting by with her sex appeal and sheer good luck. It's also nice to see actors like Colin Firth, Stephen Fry and Rupert Everett especially make fun of themselves.
Like I say, this is a really awful film, but it's a movie so rubbish that it's actually quite good. I'll never voluntarily choose to watch 'St Trinian's'; but get me drunk enough the night before, and this is a more than adequate Sunday hangover movie.
