Last updated 11:43, Tuesday, 29 July 2008

ANGUS, THONGS AND PERFECT SNOGGING (12A, 100 mins) Comedy/Romance. Georgia Groome, Eleanor Tomlinson, Georgia Henshaw, Manjeeven Grewal, Sean Bourke, Aaron Johnson, Kimberley Nixon, Alan Davies, Karen Taylor, Steve Jones. Director: Gurinder Chadha.BASED on the best-selling books by Louise Rennison, Gurinder Chadha’s new film is a comic portrait of growing pains filmed on location in Brighton and Eastbourne.

Heroine: Georgia Groome as Georgi in Angus, Thongs And Perfect Snogging

For the target audience – teenage girls – this light-hearted slice of angst and alienation will strike a chord as the socially awkward heroine takes kissing lessons and endures the humiliation of fake tan.

The script sensibly washes out its mouth, reserving its most choice language for comic effect, while discussions of boys and sex reflect the protagonists’ inexperience and innocence, referring affectionately to cleavage as “bazoongas”.

Georgia Nicholson (Groome) is a typical 14-year-old: permanently embarrassed by her loved-up parents (Davies, Taylor), desperate to fit in at school and frustrated by her inability to find a boyfriend.

Thankfully, she has her best mates Jas (Tomlinson), Rosie (Henshaw) and shrinking violet Ellen (Grewal) to lift her spirits.

When handsome brothers Tom (Bourke) and Robbie (Johnson) move to the area, Jas sets her sights on Tom while Georgia vows to win Robbie’s heart. Her sworn enemy Lindsay (Nixon) also has designs on the new boy, as well as the best cleavage in the entire year group to distract his attention. Friction intensifies when both girls decide to hold their 15th birthday parties on the same day, forcing classmates to choose between them.

Meanwhile, Georgia watches in horror as her father is forced to leave home for a lucrative job in New Zealand, on the understanding that the rest of the family will move south once he is settled.

The separation drives Georgia’s lonely mother into the hunky arms of a thirty-something builder called Jem (Jones) but is there more to the handyman than meets the eye?

Angus, Thongs And Perfect Snogging is energetic and charming but has very limited appeal outside of the target audience, even for ardent fans of T4 host Jones who spends most of the film topless.

DAMON SMITH