• Tweet

Two out of Five stars
Running time: 100 mins

Though it should be a hit with its target audience of teenage girls, this is a disappointing teen romcom, let down by some dodgy acting and a cringeworthy script.

What's it all about?
Based on the best-selling books by Louise Rennison, Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging is directed by Gurinda Chadha (Bend It Like Beckham) and stars Georgia Groome (unrecognisable from her breakthrough role in London to Brighton) as boy-crazy teenager Georgia Nicolson. Georgia’s day-to-day obsessions involve boys, body issues and bitching with best friends Jas (Eleanor Tomlinson), Rosie (Georgia Henshaw) and Ellen (Manjeeven Grewal). When good-looking brothers Tom (Sean Bourke) and Robbie (Aaron Johnson) move into the area, Georgia and Jas vow to make them their boyfriends, hopefully before Georgia's arch-rival Slaggy Lindsay (Kimberly Nixon) can get there first.

Meanwhile, Georgia gets snogging lessons from kissing expert Peter (Liam Hess) and panics when Lindsay decides to have a party on the same day as her, forcing their friends to choose between them. And if that wasn't bad enough, Georgia also worries that her father (Alan Davies) will force them to move to New Zealand while her mother (Karen Taylor) is getting rather too fond of her hunky handyman (T4 presenter Steve Jones).

The Good
There are some decent performances, particularly from Tomlinson (who almost steals the film as Jas), Davies and Taylor, while Steve Jones gets the film's biggest laugh as handyman Jem.

The Bad
The main problem is that Groome is frequently very annoying indeed, to the point where we don't really care whether Georgia succeeds or not. The film is also let down by a painfully wooden performance from Aaron Johnson, who has zero chemistry with Groome and looks like he expends all his mental energy on being really, really good-looking.

In addition, the overcrowded script bungles its supposedly emotional climaxes, leaving you vaguely dissatisfied with a badly tacked-on wrapping-up sequence.

Worth seeing?
Despite its flaws, Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging should prove a hit with its target audience, but there's very little here if you're not a teenage girl.