Featured Movies
Partners
Starter for 10Brian Johnston (McAvoy) may be naive, but what he lacks in street smarts he more than makes up for in enthusiasm and the retention of useless trivia. "Knowledge is power. Which is why I want to know everything," he explains. "Like, why people like jazz..."
This endearing brand of wry humour together with those impressive general knowledge skills earn him not only his lifetime ambition of a place on a team for the TV quiz 'University Challenge' when he starts at Bristol University in 1985, but also the attention of two attractive girls, Rebecca (Hall, daughter of director Peter Hall) and Alice (Eve).
Sadly, Brian, with his virginal clumsiness, is unable to properly capitalise on his new found mojo. He spends the rest of the film haplessly chasing and alienating the poor ladies - and blowing his main chances by passing out and mentioning the wrong name at just the wrong time. Meanwhile, success on 'University Challenge' becomes an increasingly unlikely prospect as his quiz skills desert him and his relationship with the posh team captain Patrick (an impressively priggish Cumberpatch) goes from bad to extremely violent.
The right-or-wrong-girl storyline isn't particularly original, but the 'University Challenge' plot thread adds an interesting new twist, as well as plenty of opportunity for appealingly daft comedy and a rich vein of trivia-based gags. The filmmakers also milk the venerable quiz show for all its sentimental value, adding to the already appealing nostalgia for the 1980s student golden age of grants, radical anti-Thatcher politics and music from The Cure. (Sensibly the filmmakers seem to have blown most of their budget on Robert Smith's greatest hits.)
With the exception of the steadily maturing Every-nerd Brian, the characters never amount to more than two dimensional stereotypes, but universally strong performances ensure that they are at least fun to watch. In the final reckoning, none of the action adds up to much, but well-paced direction and the sharp, cynical humour of the script make following Brian's journey into adulthood an easy pleasure, even if it does trail off into tediously moralistic 'I've learned something today' territory in the dying minutes.
|
