Wild Child [DVD]

This is an incredibly funny teenage girls film and would make an ideal present.

Poppy Moore (Emma Roberts) is a spoilt brat living in the sunny States with her father and sister, and the day her dads girlfriend is due to move in, she pulls one stunt to many and ends up at a boarding school in rainy England. Poppy thinks that it is living hell and tries desperatly to get herself expelled and this results in some very funny and imaginative senarios that Poppy and her new found friends find themselves un.

Would definitely buy as a gift for a teenage girl- very funny 5*****

A wonderful girly film in the same league as 'The Princess Diaries'. The culture clash between the superficial American Poppy and the well-mannered British girls is hilariously well acted throughout, with the typical English and American stereotypes played brilliantly. The whole cast bring a huge amount of humour to the plot, whilst underneath everything you can see that the film is a celebration of friendship, acceptance and finding yourself. A must see movie!

I was pleasantly surprised by this movie. I braced myself to watch another teen movie but I was nicely surprised and touched by the highly emotional journey to self discovery that the lead character made. Here was a teenager on the rampage, 'a rebel without a cause' because of the loss of her mum at such a tender age, in her own words she said she had a hole in her heart and her cure for that was bad company and rebellion of the worst kind; but then her father decided that enough was enough and sent her to a boarding school in England. She was hell bent on rebelling there and refused to fit in, and was plotting ways and means to be expelled from the school, but humanity, love and caring from her roommates and the principal's son got to her and gradually her thinking and behaviour began to change. Little did she know that this was the school her mum attended and that they both had something in common, something she discovered when she captained the sports team to victory. Will she still want to be expelled or will she behave and allow the goodness inside her to outshine all the sadness and grief that had marred her life since her mother died. She did discover herself and was able to distinguish real friends who cared about her from fair-weather friends. I like the story very much and the acting did not disappoint.

There was a lot to learn as a parent watching this movie because it highlighted beautifully the communication gap that often exists between parents and their children, we have to engage young people more in dialogue to find out why they think it is cool to rebel. No one really tried to communicate to her, except the Principal who was her mother's friend and wanted to help her. I guess the father was at the end of his tether, maybe the Dad could have engaged her in discussions to understand why she was acting up, but I am all too aware of how difficult this can be especially when the teenager sees the adult as the problem and the target for her rebellion. It was beautifully resolved too, I guess both were hurting from their loss and could have shared their grief but hey the movie was great and a lot of life lessons learned.

Having Natasha Richardson starring in it amongst other stars like Nick Frost, Emma Roberts ,Nick Moore etc was an added bonus. I love Natasha Richardson and as always she lit up the screen. I recommend.