Gregory's Girl

From AwardAnnals

Reviews

Amazon.com

There is something so utterly captivating about this Bill Forsyth film—whether it’s the quaintness of authentic Scottish accents (softened for its U.S. release) or the wholly universal story of young love. But what really gives Gregory’s Girl its evergreen appeal is the enchanting performance of young Gordon John Sinclair as the eponymous gangly lead. With his shock of red hair, he’s all arms and legs—and inexperience. Gregory becomes infatuated with Dorothy (a lovely Dee Hepburn), who proves a heartier and better athlete than he is. Gregory’s so clueless, he relies on advice from his wee sister. The story may be familiar, but Forsyth’s astute and affectionate rendering gives the film its momentum (the film won best screenplay at the British Academy Awards). If American viewers at first struggle to understand the well-written banter, it is worth the effort because there’s charm in nearly every line. It’s curious that both Sinclair and Hepburn, seemingly poised on the brink of stardom here, either chose not to take advantage of the possible opportunity or weren’t ever offered roles as wonderful as these. (Sinclair had a small role in Forsyth’s Local Hero and starred in 1986’s The Girl in the Picture and other small films. Hepburn appears to have worked only once post-Gregory, a brief stint in the British series Crossroads.) Forsyth completed a 1998 sequel, with Sinclair and Ever After’s Dougray Scott. —N.F. Mendoza

Barnes and Noble

A warm-hearted tale of puppy love, Scottish director Bill Forsyth’s breakthrough hit is a “small movie” in the very best sense of the word. The plot of Gregory’s Girl couldn’t be simpler. The eponymous hero, a preternaturally pale and lanky Scottish teenager (John Gordon Sinclair) develops a crush on his soccer team’s one and only female player (Dee Hepburn). Undeterred by the fact that’s she a far better player than he (and every other boy on the team), Gregory proceeds to pursue her with an enthusiasm bordering on the spastic, until a surprise chain of events leads him into the arms of a different girl (Clare Grogan of the band Altered Images). One of the geekiest teens to ever grace the screen, Gregory’s absolute lack of self-consciousness sets him apart from the typical adolescent hero. Absent from Gregory’s Girl is the social anxiety and cut-throat behavior characteristic of so many American high school comedies. The movie has an air of innocence and gentle humor that make it seem very much of another era, which in fact it is: Watching Gregory’s Girl today is to step into an early ‘80s time-warp complete with feathered hair and Dorothy Hamill ‘dos. Much of the pleasure here is in the details, as Forsyth casts a loving eye on the film’s Scottish middle-class milieu. The performances are charming and unforced, and the casting of Gregory’s gang of gangly, horny pals—a wonderful assortment of the kind of faces that you never see in Hollywood movies—is inspired. Gregory’s Girl is a rarity—a coming-of-age film that is genuinely sweet and quirky without ever becoming cloying or sentimental. Kryssa Schemmerling