Extra Geography

Two best friends (Marni Duggan, Galaxie Clear) at a countryside boarding school in England challenge themselves to find out what being in love is like.

The first of a triple-header we did at the cinema (or tried to do — I fell asleep in Sense and Sensibility), and this one was a surprise hit. It’s a funny, well constructed story of female friendship at an awkward stage in life, set in a weirdly isolated environment.

The girls’ target when looking for love is their female geography teacher, who they decide to fixate on and eventually befriend. The relationship goes too far in the end, and the film just doesn’t have the capacity to deal with such a weighty topic on top of everything else it wants to say.

The interweaving of the looming summer school Shakespeare play with the narrative is a clever device, and the deliberately anti-climactic play itself is used as great fodder for some creative edits.

I can’t say the room was in fits of laughter, but this is a good film that deserves its time in the sun (or the cinema, in this case). Well cast, well directed, well written.