Starter for 10 (2006)

Director:

Tom Vaughan

Writers:

David Nicholls (novel)
David Nicholls (screenplay)

Release Date:

9 March 2007 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Drama | Romance

Plot:

Set in 1985, working-class student Brian Jackson (McAvoy) navigates his first year at Bristol University.

Plot Keywords:

University | Politics | Thatcherism | Love | Team

Awards:

1 win & 3 nominations

Cast

Joseph Friend	...	Young Brian
James Gaddas	...	Martin Jackson
Catherine Tate	...	Julie Jackson
Mark Gatiss	...	Bamber Gascoigne
Robert Cawsey	...	University Challenge Competitor
Rasmus Hardiker	...	University Challenge Competitor
Guy Henry	...	Dr. Morrison
James McAvoy	...	Brian Jackson
James Corden	...	Tone
Dominic Cooper	...	Spencer
Simon Woods	...	Josh
Sule Rimi	...	Marcus
Joe Van Moyland	...	Hippy at the Party
Rebecca Hall	...	Rebecca Epstein
Benedict Cumberbatch	...	Patrick Watts

Also Known As:

Starter for Ten (UK) (alternative spelling)

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 for sexual content, language and a scene of drug use.

Runtime:

92 min

Country:

UK | USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS | SDDS | Dolby Digital

Certification:

USA:PG-13 | Ireland:15A | UK:12A | Finland:K-7 | New Zealand:M | Australia:M | South Korea:15

Filming Locations:

BBC Television Centre, Wood Lane, Shepherd's Bush, London, England, UK

Company:

BBC Films

Trivia:

Despite the fact she plays his mother Catherine Tate is only 11 years older than James McAvoy.

Goofs:

Continuity: Before recording starts on University Challenge, there is a shot of a monitor focused on Bamber Gascoigne. The scoreboard next to him shows the final score.

Quotes:

Brian Jackson: Got an announcement to make. I'm gonna be on University Challenge.
Julie Jackson: What a relief. I thought you were gonna say you were gay.

Movie Connections:

Featured in "HBO First Look: Starter for 10 (#14.5)" (2007)

Soundtrack:

Pictures of You

Entertaining no-brainer

Starter For Ten (three stars)

Director Tom Vaughan Writer David Nicholls Stars Ian Bonar, Alice Eve, Rebecca Hall, Catherine Tate Certificate 12A Running time 96 minutes Country UK / USA Year 2006

Don't let the pathetically weak opening scene - a flashback of a university applicant as a boy, watching University Challenge and guessing the answers - put you off. Starter For Ten actually manages to get better. Although nominally about qualifying to be on the TV famous game show, the film is really a light-hearted coming-of-age drama set in the 80s. It has convincing performances and a lovingly recreated period of Thatcher Britain, when corduroy was cool and Kate Bush was for intellectuals.

Working class Brian was not born clever - he has to work at it. Gaining entry to a posh university, he meanders through undergraduate days with a classic dilemma: do you fall in love with the intellectually attractive brunette or the blonde goddess? Karl Marx, Freud and John Lennon, like smoking hash and learning how to do blowbacks, are all part of the social landscape of what is trendy and what isn't. Half way in, the film subject matter allows plenty of social commentary on the irksome British class divisions that penetrate romance, friendship and the University Challenge team.

Versatile Catherine Tate puts in an amiable performance as Brian's ever supportive and cooing mother: she's having an affair with the ice-cream van man ("you can hear him coming"). This enjoyable no-brainer of a movie is aided and abetted by a blistering 80s soundtrack with bands such as The Cure, Psychedelic Furs, Buzzcocks, Yazoo, The Smiths, Tears for Fears, The Undertones - and Kate Bush.

Starter for Ten is not searing drama, but it does make a pleasant and worthwhile trip down nostalgia lane. The characters are ones we can love and care about and the movie mostly avoids predictability and cheese. If "the most important questions in life are the ones we already know the answer to," and are not exactly rocket science, the subject matter of Starter For Ten is a welcome and unpretentious antidote to the plethora of similar American teen comedies. If you like the music, it's worth going for that alone.