I never saw "The History Boys" on Broadway but I kind of feel like I have. I saw the movie version of the Tony-award winning play on Saturday at the $3 theater at Beverly and Fairfax and found it to be quite good. With the play's cast inhabiting the same roles on-screen, it's almost as if they just filmed the play at the theater one night. The actors are so comfortable and so good in their roles. The play won six Tony Awards last June including best play, best actor (Richard Griffiths) and best featured actress (Frances de la Tour). Griffiths and de la Tour are both up for British Academy Awards for their roles in the film version. Since the movie is barely in theaters, you will probably have to wait for DVD to see it but it shouldn't lose a thing at home really.
Written by Alan Bennett, the story takes place in Cutlers' Grammar School, Sheffield, a fictional boys' grammar school in England that follows a group of history pupils preparing for the Oxbridge entrance examination. They are under the guidance of two teachers with dramatically contrasting styles: young and handsome Irwin (Stephen Campbell Moore) who teaching method basically seeks to disguise the boys' ignorance in the hope of programming them for success, and othe old and troubled Hector (Griffiths) who wants to teach knowledge as it is.
The film is filled with wonderful dialogue delivered by a very talented cast who have made an effortless transition from stage to screen. My favorite scene is when Posner (Samuel Barnet) tells Hector that he thinks he is a homosexual and that he wouldn't not want to be. He's longing for the cocky Dakin (Dominic Cooper) who only has eyes for Irwin. The film touches on so many themes and i love the "Dead Poet's Society" moments and the interaction between the boys. They are all pretty blase and almost amused at Hector's groping them whenever he gives them a ride home on his motor bike. While he might be a brilliant teacher, he is a very troubled man.
I love the final scene when we leap forward in time and see what has become of this group of boys. It's the scene that probably won de la Tour the Tony.
Thumbs up for "The History Boys."