My Review of "Different for Girls"

Different for Girls is an odd little title that came out back in 1996. You'd never have guessed how progressive we were back in those times until you've seen this movie. Maybe it's just a cultural acceptance of the UK but this definitely doesn't feel like it could have been a movie made in North America in those times.

The movie starts off in the boys shower at an all boys school. Here's where we get introduced to a character named Karl. He's a boy that's obviously having issues and a group of boys harass him in the shower. All this stops when a boy named Prentice comes in to save him.

This duo become pretty good friends throughout school. Well it's implied that they had a good relationship with one another. Instead the movie jumps to their present time in 1996. Now we get introduced to Kim who used to be the bullied Karl back in the day. She's now a woman living her life in what I'm assuming London.

She's got a great job and living a quant life. All this is messed up when her taxi going to work hits a messenger bike. The driver of this bike happens to be Prentice. At first Prentice doesn't understand that Kim used to be Karl but that quickly changes.

At this point I thought it was quite forward of this movie to have Prentice act pretty civil about Kim's new life. Prentice actually wants to be a part of Kim's life and wants to learn more about her. The two start hanging out but they are the total opposite from one another.

In fact Prentice is a horrible person. I can only imagine Kim wanting to hang out with him because perhaps she's lonely from her quaint life of monotony. Prentice on the other hand is another story. They have him hounding her from the get go.

As Kim learns more and more about how terrible Prentice is this all comes to a stop when Prentice does a pretty unspeakable act in public. It's something bad enough that most of us would stop hanging out with him. Still there's something inside Kim that for some reason makes her long for him. It's pretty messed up and there's a ton of toxicity involved with it.

It's ultimately a weird relationship story between our two main characters. I find it really odd and by today's standard unheard of but I'm sure some people have had relationships like this. To me it looks like an abusive relationship but what do I know.

I found the movie was oddly forward thinking in the fact that Kim was simply accepted for who she was back in those times. No one really bothers her or treats her that differently. Well later down the road there are some issues but nothing that I thought she'd have to deal with back in those times. Again this could be a cultural thing so maybe the UK was a lot more accepting even back in those times.

There is a bit of weirdness in the fact that no one has cell phones in this movie. A lot of the things that Prentice does to Kim is stalkerish. He goes to harass her at her workplace and at her home. This is to the point that she has to move out for a bit just to avoid him. I can't imagine what people had to do back in the day without the anonymity of the internet.

Overall, It was a meh movie that wasn't quite that entertaining to me. I'm sure there is a market for this story but I wasn't that into it. Perhaps it was the unlikability of the Prentice character that did it for me. There were a few times where my mind would wander away from the movie. Unfortunately I have to give this movie a 4 out of 10. I would not recommend this movie to anyone. There's a lot of better options out there.