Flirting (1991)

Flirting

This is the sequel to The Year My Voice Broke, and we follow again Danny Embling who's now at boarding school. I can easily understand people believing otherwise looking at the covers, as they are headlined by Nicole Kidman, with Thandie Newton as the secondary eye-catcher. As Kidman had become hit with both Days of Thunder and Far and Away opposite Tom Cruise, prior to the US release of this Duigan movie, they milked her name for everything in advertisement.

Make no mistake. Kidman is playing her part marvelously here as always, but it's a minor role compared to those of Newton and Noah Taylor as Danny. Newton is great, while Taylor seems to take a step backwards from his first encounter with his character.

The same can be said about writer and director Duigan. This feels a lot more like a lot of other movies on the subject of boarding schools, young love and coming of age. Several of his choices feels a lot more safe and mainstream than those taken the first time around with the Embling character, or in Mouth to Mouth. I actually do believe I would have rated this movie higher if I hadn't met Danny in The Year My Voice Broke (Unlike Roger Ebert who hadn't seen that prior), and seen him go through his first agonies. Never the less. Flirting feels like Duigan sold out on several occasions, but he still manages to stay true to some of his finer qualities when it comes to handle youth. Making an early career visit with the likes of Kidman, Newton and even Naomi Watts in a smaller role, makes it anyway all worthwhile.