The last time we had seen Danny Embling was in 1987's The Year My Voice Broke. John Duigan ended that film with a sobering voice-over from the adult Danny, recalling how he never saw Freya again, and how sometimes childhood friendships lack the survival instincts to make it into the real world. That 'Stand By Me' touch has been dialled back for the loose sequel in Flirting. There's still glimpses of an older, wiser Danny reflecting back on his past, but now there isn't the same adolescent desperation that causes every aspect of life to be overblown. And Flirting is better for it. This is a film that knows exactly what it is and doesn't try to be more; rarely does a director have this type of self-control. Yes, the boy is invoking Camus and Sartre in his everyday musings, but this never spills out of his own character. Danny, now a scrawny seventeen year old, has been shipped off to boarding school to beat the delinquent out of him. His classmates target his stutter daily, and make a mockery out of his every word. Like most teen movies, he has managed to scavenge one friend to keep the bullying at bay, but unlike most teen movies, they aren't about to set the world on fire. For one thing, they aren't played by actors in their mid-twenties. Another thing, the conflict isn't billed as a battle between the nerds and jocks. Hollywood has predictably conditioned us to believe that if the protagonist steps into the boxing ring against some hulking bully a miracle will be pulled off, and if not, the latter will at least be dealt their comeuppance in the end. Those films are less likely to wallop their main character because of his own foolishness; Thandiwe warns him against it, as does Gilbert (who has thoughtful advice for all sorts of situations), but Danny is compelled anyway, and is beaten to a pulp. Yet Duigan is wise enough to recognise that one quarrel doesn't mean the end of the world, and in an subtle, unspoken way later, he signals the respect that has been gained from the clash.Noah Taylor is good enough to draw on the intellectual inspiration that his teenager is driven by, and to present it in a way that cleverly appeals to both meatheads and admirers. He first catches Thandiwe's eye when their respective schools contest a debating competition, and in a moment of triumphant comedy, he waxes lyrical about the wonders of rugby and masculine physicality while slyly inserting his own disdain for the sport. Thandiwe returns serve with her ironic praise for pop culture, and every raised eyebrow and wry smile along with Little Richard's elegant prose draws Danny in further. The scene is their first instance of flirting, of their brains gently bumping up against each other, and silent gazes saying so much. The love scenes in Flirting are so truthfully drawn they are almost like windows into the past. Watching them, I am reminded of how sex is often treated in teen movies as a flamboyant selling point, as a way of justifying that raunchy R rating. Remember Phoebe Cates rising from the pool in slow motion like a goddess? Was that for the film's development, or was it for the audience to hoot and cheer? But then watch Danny and Thandiwe inching towards each other on a rug, guiding each other with their hands, saying everything with their eyes. And their last touch? The teachers don't even have to pry them apart, or cut off their last desperate declaration of love. They know their time will be up sooner or later, and they have the maturity to accept it. Look beyond the lead pair and you find Duigan's acute sense of the boarding school milieu. The boys are wild animals, jokesters slapping each other around until dance night, where they stand shoulder to shoulder staring at the horror across the hall...GIRLS!!! Every Australian school classroom has that one larrikin that always stops laughing a little too late, and cops detention while professing that it will never happen again...at least until the next lesson. Mr Cutts? He keeps a firm line of discipline while still showing he cares about his students - almost as much as he cares about his little model airplanes. And look at the scene where Danny and Thandiwe's parents meet for the first time, which is a perfect distillation of how Australians practice small talk. They offering simple pleasantries. They exchange polite nods and smiles, hoping to pry just a little but not too personally. They fumble around for conversation topics and somehow end up stumbling into some tricky issues, but chug along anyway. No one 'wins' the scene. There isn't an agenda breathing down their necks when they bring up war or race, and we leave feeling that all four are well-meaning adults that want the best for their children. A film like Flirting is a breath of fresh air. It concedes to not having all the answers, and that's okay. Danny may not be able to solve the Ugandan political crisis, but that won't stop him from holding Thandiwe's hand, staring deeply into her eyes, and hoping for the best.

In one school is Danny Embling (Noah Taylor), an introspective young man who reads Camus and Sartre; in the other school is Thandie Newton (Thandiwe Adjewa) the daughter of a Ugandan diplomat. Danny is an outsider because of his shy manner, gawky build, and offbeat intellectual passions. Thandie suffers racist comments and ostracism from her school mates. But it's not like either Danny or Thandie is a total outcast--they are just not in the in crowd. Well, it's almost foreordained that these two outsiders are going to fall for each other and the movie sparkles in detailing their evolving relationship. The development of their sexual feelings is handled with great tenderness and reflects the awkwardness most young people have in these areas. You have to appreciate the honesty of a film like this.The success of "Flirting" owes a lot to the performances. Taylor is perfect in his portrayal of a reserved, yet rebellious, teen and the attractive Adjewa plays the more mature Thandie with subtlety. Nicole Kidman plays a snobbish, but ultimately likable, classmate of Thandie with such believability that you wonder what she was like when she was younger.The issue of the mixed race relationship between Danny and Thandie is downplayed. There is some circumspection about it, but that aspect of the relationship is never put front and center.This is a sequel to "The Year My Voice Broke" and, if you like "Flirting," you will most likely enjoy the earlier movie as well. Poor Danny seems destined to sit on a rock on the outskirts of town contemplating why the women in his life had to leave him.

This has got to be by far one of the most touching, intelligent, sensitive and emotionally mature and rewarding films out there on first love. What is also truly impressive is that it deals with this topic while also touching on inter-racial love, racism, African colonialism, and Jean-Paul Sarte without ever once becoming condescending or maudlin. It is a film that not only respects the feelings of the two fully-inhabited main character but by doing so, makes the viewer all the more involved in their world and feelings for each other. The director and the script both assume that the viewer is intelligent and the viewer is accordingly rewarded.Noah Taylor and Thandie Newton are truly exceptional and highly intelligent actors and watching both their bodies of work like "Shine", "Max", "Beseiged" and "Crash has truly been a pleasure. I do hope the best is yet to come from these fine actors and I'm sure their futures are bright.Much has been made of Nicole Kidman in this film but really she's only a secondary character as well as the young Naomi Watts. I wish Hollywood would stop looking at this film as a Nicole Kidman vehicle when truly Taylor and Newton deserve the attention for this early work.This movie is also beautifully shot, especially the scenes when Danny rows his boat over the river by moonlight or watching the two of them skim rocks over the water surface or Danny at the end, reading Thandie's letter on the windy rocks and the sky suddenly clearing up on him. At the very end Danny come to the very mature realization on the transcendent nature of true love, something which I don't think he understood in "The Year My Voice Broke".I actually went out and got this film on DVD and never tire of watching it from time to time, a sign of great film. It really reminds you of what it was once like when those first feelings of romantic love started to appear in your life, all the promise, the novelty and the authenticity as well as the insecurities. So it's not really just a "teen" movie, I think just about anyone who has had these experiences can appreciate this gem of a film.Do yourself a favour and try finding a copy, you won't regret it.

Before Nicole Kidman became an international superstar, she starred in this Australian flick about a romance between a white Australian boy (Noah Taylor, who played David Helfgott as a teenager in "Shine") and an African girl (Thandie Newton, of "Crash" fame) in a boarding school in the mid-'60s. It sounds like something that could easily be a total cliché, but they do it quite well, developing the characters beyond what we anticipate.The main stars of "Flirting" certainly show the talent that they would bring to their later roles. A very young Naomi Watts - several years before watching a killer video and getting carried around by a giant ape - also stars.