I was very disappointed with this film, and surprised that it had received such wonderful reviews. Can't anybody see that it doesn't make sense? I was 16 in 1983 and remember what school was like in the UK at that time. Nobody was openly gay. Most friends of mine at 17/18 were desperately trying to lose their virginity - with a girl. The few who later turned out to be gay probably started their sex lives as bit later, at university. At school it was all a bit hysterical. Teachers suspected of fondling were subject to whispering campaigns and were ostracized and hounded. Why would the one boy who has managed to get somewhere with a girl be the one to offer a male teacher sex? Why wouldn't any of his friends be the least bit surprised or worried about this behaviour? Since when did kids in 1983 call someone a "fuck"? Is the audience meant to accept that non oxbridge universities like Bristol and Newcastle (both excellent universities!) were ever second rate? Maybe to a snob like Bennett, but who cares? Why would an entire history class be the only ones good enough to apply for oxbridge? none of it rings true. The only sympathetic character is Rudge, and his character is also involved in the only piece of truth in the whole shoddy exercise - he gets into Oxbridge because somebody knew his father. In real life the others just wouldn't have got in - certainly not the whole class. But Bennett doesn't make us care anyway - he's too busy with his odd thesis for that - but don't ask me what the thesis is because that's not clear either. There's much more. The use of Griffiths just makes one remember his superb performance as a scary queer uncle in Withnail and I - a far superior film in which there is tension and emotion, and characters you love (Withnail, I and Uncle Monty are all believable, comic and fully rounded) none of which are on display here. We just don't care when he dies, and we don't care what happens to the kids, as told in the final scene, because the script doesn't go into who they really are, or what they want. The hook - getting into oxbridge - doesn't seem to really concern them at any point in the film, so it fails as a tension provider. The real theme (everyone's gay) is very ambiguous and never really comes out to say what it thinks about itself (the blowjob never even happens - why not? Did Bennett chicken out?). The fact is, just as Rudge got into Oxford because of his dad, Bennett got the film made because he's a luvvy, with a troupe of backslappers telling him every word he writes is as clever as hell. It has to be so, otherwise this tosh would never have made the screen. The next night I watched "The Last King of Scotland". What a film! What performances! What a contrast with this limp piece of self indulgence!