Starter for Ten (2007)

Brian Jackson (James McAvoy) isn't beautiful or smart. He has to work at it. 1985 finds him gaining entrance to England's prestigious Bristol University where he soon develops a crush on a girl completely out of his league. Alice Harbinson (Alice Eve) is everything Brian is not-- beautiful, smart and wealthy. His freshman year is part coming-of-age, part series of romantic gaffes as Brian begins to assert his individuality. A general knowledge god, Brian knows all the stuff you didn't bother learning and uses it to diffuse tense situations, impress peers and hopefully, get the girl.

Starter for Ten has a complex; it suffers from an identity crisis. Because director Tim Vaughan doesn't know where he's going, darling James McAvoy languishes onscreen underutilized. The whole cast suffers from lack of depth and direction. Much like the facts Brian goes about absorbing, this movie is pointless.

This clumsy romantic comedy goes nowhere. Starter for Ten does manage bits of genius thanks to clever dialogue. The classic 80s soundtrack from The Cure and Tears for Fears stabs blindly at nostalgia.

Starter for Ten is not a complete waste of 96 minutes; its just a goofy, romantic comedy no-brainer for those who remember when Kate Bush was for intellectuals.