This movie sneaked into theaters through the back door. There was little promotion, no commercials, no trailers, no posters — nothing that I saw anyway. When I saw this on the schedule for my local theater I had to go looking around for a trailer to get an idea of what it was. I did find it and I thought that it looked pretty good, so I decided to give it a go. I went in with the best of intentions, hoping for a fun, irreverent comedy. When it was finally over, I walked out wondering just were they thinking. It is not nearly the worst film I have seen, but it does not seem that they put any actual thought into the story; instead they were content to just create a little anarchy.
St. Trinian's was originally released in its native UK back in 2007 where it was a big hit, raking in more than $25 million. It did so well that it has spawned a sequel, currently in post-production. Why it took so long to cross the pond, I am not sure, but it is here now and no one has noticed. I saw the film Saturday afternoon, opening weekend, and I was the only one there. I am not surprised, but perhaps a little disappointed that more people are not choosing to check out the unknown quantity that is this film.
The movie is ostensibly a comedy, but it can be broken down much more than that. St. Trinian's is a slapstick, coming of age, counter-culture, subversive, cross-dressing, comedy, heist film. I think that about covers it. I believe it is possible for a film to cover all of this ground and be good; sadly, this film just seems muddled and confused.
The core of St. Trinian's is a story about a school on the verge of bankruptcy whose students band together in order to steal a famous piece of art to fence for the mortgage money. Before we can get to this plot point we have some other business to attend to.
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