There's no doubt about it, Wild Child is not a film for the male populace. So far this year I've had a surprisingly rewarding experience with chick flicks, usually finding at least something positive to cling onto during the course of the feature, and at times even enjoying the movie as a whole. Yet today was not one of those days, as sadly enough, my male attributes got the better of me. With all of this said however, despite my obvious problem with connecting to any of the characters on the screen, I found it hard to believe that anyone could do so regardless of gender, age or anything else; Wild Child is formulaic, dumb, mawkish and irksome not just through it's naïve, inane plot but more importantly, through its just as- banal characters. Devoid of any real likable personalities or interesting, original characterisation, director Nick Moore's feature length debut neither sustains any entertainment value nor offers any significant insight into the script's themes. Younger, female audiences will probably appreciate it a little better than me, but not by much.
I don't know what's worse; watching lead character Poppy (Emma Roberts), a supposed rebellious Buddhist fashion queen of Malibu prance around for the first half of the movie playing the same "Eww! England is so dirty and medieval!" note, or seeing the British antagonised once again as stuffy, snobbish, dirty, monarchist morons that have never heard of an iPhone. Told in two polarising halves, the story here attempts to tell the tale of someone becoming a better person and coming of age by leaving behind their spoiled, bourgeois lifestyle behind for a much more disciplined and simpler life. Instead however, what Wild Child achieves is a sort of cartoon annoyance that's only real intent seems to be to rehash countless other similar stories whilst at the same time demoralising every act and line of dialogue that comes out of all the characters' mouths. It's transparent and utterly drab, never truly conveying the difference in cultures between the British and Americans with relevance or even comic effect; I wonder if you have ever seen Wife Swap? If so, it's a bit like that, only with more cheese at the end of the race.
The first half of the movie with its black and white ethics and cultural insight tinged with humourless jokes and crass characterisation is thankfully the weaker half, but this still doesn't say much for the second. Following Poppy as she and her new friends attempt to get her expelled from the boarding school so that she can travel back home to Malibu, it's of no surprise that soon Poppy through trying to escape- finds she doesn't want to leave. Not only is it predictable and without any original flavours whatsoever, but it's overlong and tiresome. The working in of a seedy antagonist set out to take revenge on Poppy for the sheer sake that she's always been the queen of the school and now Poppy looks to steal her thunder, is just as tedious and useless. In the end all these elements come together in the form of a ridiculous school court hearing, judging the fate of a certain character and at this point it's clear just how derivative and mawkish the whole affair is. Of course it all climaxes in a super happy ending for everyone but the evil antagonist that actually presumes you thought it was going to end up anywhere else, yet doesn't ever lead you to do so beforehand.
This just about sums up the entire feature; it's anticlimactic, mundane and lazy with only slight glints of interest to be seen over the course of the superfluous runtime. One underused strength in particular is the relationship dynamic between Poppy and her father, yet sharing only a few scenes together, nothing much is achieved or capitalised on. Instead the film occupies most of its time making sure to throw in tired jokes about the differences in culture that presumably exists between America and Britian, which, if you've ever been to both countries, you'll know isn't as caricature as it is portrayed here. Of course, cultural stereotypes can be funny, but that's not the case here; it's hum-drum humour filtered through characters that you don't even want to laugh with. I suppose if I was to state one clear coherent aspect of the film, it would be Michael Price's score. Yet I hope you can see that with a movie such as this, when the music captures your attention more than anything else that is going on, you've got trouble. Lame, sappy and pretentious, it certainly won't help to see this if you're a guy, but even if you're not, I advise you give it a miss anyway; this isn't a chick flick, it's a nobody flick.
- A review by Jamie Robert Ward. For more reviews of all the latest movies please visit: http://www.invocus.net
