Sting in the tail

The Scouting Book for Boys
15, Key Cities

This week, I should probably have seen Old Dogs starring John Travolta and Robin Williams as ‘two best friends who have their lives turned upside down when they’re unexpectedly charged with the care of six-year-old twins’ but I saw the trailer on TV and couldn’t do it. I felt repelled. I felt repelled even though I knew it would be a bad film and bad films make for good, easy copy. Copy-wise, bad films are like stealing candy from a baby, which is as easy as everyone says it is. In fact, I’ve recently stolen so much candy from babies that I now have enough to last months. Generally, I blame the parents. Knowing how easy it is to steal this candy — heck, there is even a common expression that says as much! — why don’t they sew the lollipops into the baby’s clothes or blankets? It’s not rocket science, is it? Doh!

So, no Old Dogs, even though it’s the biggest film of the week, and, instead, The Scouting Book for Boys, which is one of those low-budget, gritty British films (yes, one of those) set in a woebegone caravan park (and one of those). It is directed by newcomer Tom Harper and the screenplay is by Jack Thorne, who has written for the TV shows Shameless and Skins, both of which I have seen only occasionally. I can’t just sit around watching telly. I’ve got candy to steal! Anyway, it stars Thomas Turgoose, who was fabulous as the little boy in Shane Meadows’ This is England, and is now quite a big boy. He plays David, a troubled teen in love with his best friend, Emily (Holliday Grainger). Scouting describes itself as ‘a coming-of-age love story with a sting in the tail’ and it is quite a sting.