Bad in ways that are almost endearing, “St. Trinian’s” does offer the spectacle of Rupert Everett mincing around in drag as a headmistress bedeviled by Colin Firth, as an education minister and former lover who wants to shut down her out-of-control school.
Any UK farce that also offers the witty Stephen Fry as the host of a quiz show in which tweens try to rig the results to save their school cannot easily be ignored. And that’s not even mentioning take-no-prisoners Brit comic Russell Brand as a faux-art dealer who gets into some frisky high jinks with the un-PC girls.
Directed with blowtorch subtlety by Oliver Parker and Barnaby Thompson, the fitfully funny “St. Trinian’s” is nominally based on a 1954 arthouse smash (inspired by Ronald Searle cartoons) that haunted TV screens for decades and inspired six sequels. This film revival was so successful in England that a sequel is reportedly in the works.
Running time: 97 minutes. Rated PG-13. At the Empire, the 19th Street East, others.