HANDSOME DEVIL – QFest St. Louis Review

HANDSOME DEVIL screens  Sunday, Apr. 2 at 7:30pm at the .ZACK (3224 Locust St., St. Louis, MO 63103) as part of this year’s QFest St. Louis. Ticket information can be found HERE. SHOWN WITH: “More Than God” (Kev Cahill, 2015, Ireland, 9 min.) This comedy set in modern Ireland follows the attempts of a religious doctor to uncover his wife’s suspected affair. In the process, he is confronted by the rigidity of his beliefs.

In the Irish comedy HANDSOME DEVIL, a gay student who is a fish-out-of-water at his rugby-obsessed boarding school finds an unlikely ally in a new student, a handsome devil who is rugby star.

Things have not gone well for Ned Roche (Fionn O’Shea) since his widowed father remarried a younger woman. The couple now live in Dubai but send the teen to a boarding school back home in Ireland. There Ned is subjected to endless bullying. Short, red-headed and gay, Ned also has the misfortune of not to be a big rugby fan, in a school that lives for the sport. On the way to start another school year, he dreams about behaving badly enough to get expelled, like the son of a friend of his dad’s who is now, according to Ned’s dad, “living as a bum in Paris.” Sounds good to Ned.

At this school, just not liking rugby was enough to get teased for being “gay” – which these students defined as just being different and not fitting in, which is viewed as the worst possible thing. Actually being gay was beyond all that, in this stuck-in-the-past school. Ned’s top tormentor is a rugby team bully, known as Weasel (Ruairi O’Connor). Ned deflects with the bullying with humor, and he isn’t the only target, but it is a lonely life. When he assigned a room by himself, he is delighted. Maybe this will be a better year.

But his happiness is short-lived when the insensitive (and also rugby-mad) headmaster moves a new student into the room. The new roommate is the opposite of Ned: tall, handsome, and a rugby star. Ned’s hopes for a more peaceful school year seem at an end. He is not welcoming to the new boy, “handsome devil” Conor Masters (Nicholas Galitzine).

Yet Conor proves to be a different kind of person than the other jocks at the school. Expelled for fighting at his previous school, Conor is worried about fitting in too.

The film uses a dry comic tone, and some sarcasm-laced voice-over narration, to transform what could have been a familiar high school outsider’s tale into something more insightful. A terrific musical soundtrack with tongue-in-cheek bite adds to the film’s comic tone. Music is an area where the two boys find common ground – along with a mutual dislike of Weasel.

“Game of Thrones” actor Michael McElhatton plays the headmaster Walter Curly, with Andrew Scott, from PBS’ “Sherlock,” appearing as English teacher Mr. Sherry. The obsessive rugby coach Pascal O’Keeffe is played by Moe Dunford. All turn in strong performances, particularly Scott, with his usual sly, winking performance. The young leads bring an appealing naturalness to their roles, and it is easy to grow to like them both.

The coming-of-age story line goes to down some interesting paths, and finally leads us to a feel-good ending, where several characters learn a lesson, especially about being true to themselves. It is a delightful film, filled with winning performances and buoyed above becoming sentimental by its generous dose of dry Irish humor.