Americans have been remaking French stories for years so why shouldn’t the French do an American story – only not a film, but a real life incident: the famous teen pregnancy pact. This has been relocated to a grimy small town where most of the local kids are unemployed, in factories or the army. The hottest girl in school announces she’s pregnant; a girl who wants to be in her gang says she does too and pretty soon a whole bunch of them are.
There’s some great stuff here – girls empowering themselves by being knocked up, bewildered parents and teachers (I loved the staff meeting), the collective mind set you get in schools amongst peers. I did feel the film lost some opportunities for drama – surely part of the reason to do it is to get back at boys, teachers and parents, yet there’s very little of either (maybe as a man I was looking for that more).
Characters are frustratingly under-developed - the lead girl is an enigma, you think the tag-along girl is going to be an important player but she isn't, this little girl who desperately wants to be pregnant suddenly becomes important then fades away.
Still, it's worth watching and I wouldn't be surprised if the Yanks remade it.
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