Older but not much wiser

Gregory's Two Girls (15) Bill Forsyth has come in for a fair amount of criticism since the box office failure of his last film, Being Human. It was his most ambitious movie, five separate but thematically related stories spanning 6000 years of human existence. Despite the screen presence of Robin Williams and Ewan McGregor, Being Human sank without a trace in America and received virtually no playtime in the UK. There is, however a happy footnote to this sad tale: Forsyth attended a little-known film festival in Mexico last year where he received a storytelling award. There he screened Being Human to a very receptive audience, who asked him when the film was being released. "Four years ago," he replied.

Actually, Forsyth sees the criticism levelled at him, much of it from the Scottish press, as a throwback to the more general attacks on his move to Hollywood in the late 1980s. However, none of his American films - Housekeeping, Breaking In and Being Human - were actually made in Hollywood, and all maintained his idiosyncratic humour and view of life.

In the last five years Forsyth has been developing a number of projects, and says he never really planned a sequel to his 1979 hit Gregory's Girl. Instead, this particular film came about as a result of pressure to develop the original character into a 13-episode television series. Protective about his creation, Forsyth decided not to water him down over a weekly series and instead to maintain his potency - as he puts it - with another film.

Depending on how optimistic you are, you'll either have waited for Gregory's Two Girls with baited breath or regarded it with suspicion. So has the director who almost single-handedly reshaped modern Scottish cinema finally lost it? Thankfully on this evidence the answer is no.

The basic premise sees Gregory Underwood grown up (at least physically) and still living in Cumbernauld, where he is now an English teacher at his old school. John Gordon Sinclair returns to the role he made his own in 1979 (Forsyth wasn't prepared to film the sequel without him) and plays Gregory once more as the nerdy, slightly irritating, ultimately endearing little boy at heart.

Cleverly, Forsyth has penned the film's two storylines to play on Gregory's two leading character traits: naivete and immaturity. In one, Gregory avoids the attentions of fellow schoolteacher Bel (Maria Doyle Kennedy) who threatens him with an adult relationship, fantasising instead about a fling with Frances, one of his students (newcomer Carly McKinnon). In the second story, Gregory is reacquainted with old school pal Fraser (played with devilish charm by Dougray Scott), an entrepreneur who has rediscovered his roots in Scotland. He has set up a successful business and employed locals - but his dealings are far from ethical.

Unsurprisingly, the Bel/Frances story works better. The relations between the three principal characters recall the romantic confusions of the original film, and it is here that Forsyth's trademark mischievous sense of humour asserts itself. There is a priceless scene in which Gregory is questioned by his headmaster, the police and Frances' parents, who suspect him of gross misconduct with their daughter. Fumbling and stuttering his way through the interview, Gregory confuses everyone - including himself - but escapes with his job if not his dignity. Conversely, the Fraser strand overwhelms the film with plot. There's some worthy stuff about human rights abuse, but it seems out of place. The first film worked with nothing more than quirky humour and wonderful characters.

Inevitably, the sequel was never going to match the original. And yet the combined talents of Forsyth and Gordon Sinclair deliver what fans of the original will want - cheeky charm.

Miles Fielder

Copyright 1999
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