Gregory’s Girl review

Writer/director Bill Forsyth must remember quite clearly what it is really like to be a teenager – awkward and embarrassing – for he captures it all perfectly in this lovely, funny Scottish comedy drama. While the Scottish accents had to be re-recorded (softer) for American audiences, the story is universal: young, gangly Gregory (Sinclair) discovers his new-found height isn’t helping his co-ordination on the football field, and he is replaced by a pretty girl named Dorothy (Hepburn), whom he naturally falls in love with. She, however, rebuffs him, while the dippy Susan (Clare Grogan) harbours a secret crush on him instead.

Sinclair is hilarious as the awkward teen who seems to be all arms and (very long) legs, while Forsyth adds to the humour by peppering the film with witty dialogue and quirky moments that truly depict the pain and sheer bloody awfulness of growing up. Forsyth returned to Gregory’s tale in 1999 with the less successful Gregory’s Two Girls, in which Gregory has grown up and become a teacher (snore).