Wild Child (12a)

Aug 18 2008 By Roz Laws

POPPY (Emma Roberts, niece of Julia) is a spoilt Malibu brat.

Her father Aidan Quinn, fed up of her nasty behaviour, packs the 16-year-old off to boarding school in England.

Abbey Mount School is run by firm but fair headmistress Natasha Richardson, who declares: “Negotiation is like a nightclub, not something I enter into.”

Poppy hates everything about the school – the uniform, the lack of a phone signal so she can’t ring her therapist, and the snobby head girl.

But fellow pupils Kimberley Nixon and Juno Temple realise her bitchiness is just a front and she’s a nice girl underneath. They suggest that if she really wants to leave, she should behave even worse and get herself expelled.

As she’s introduced to Wagon Wheels and chip butties, she gradually warms to her surroundings and her new friends, especially Freddie (Alex Pettyfer), the head’s hot son.

Also popping up are Nick Frost as a camp Scottish hairdresser who dyes her hair brown and teachers Justin Watkins, Daisy Donovan and Shirley Henderson.

It’s highly predictable and sappy but sweet and the script and cast are pretty good. Young teenage girls will love it.

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