Synopsis

After a string of run-ins with the law, working-class Rhode Island teenager Timothy "Dunph" Dunphy is sent to an elite boarding school by his frustrated father. Away from home, Dunph encounters unfamiliar rules, friendships, romance, and expectations, gradually moving beyond his reckless adolescence while confronting the emotional complications of family, class, and growing up.

Factoids & Trivia

• The film adapts Peter Farrelly's 1988 semi-autobiographical novel. Farrelly drew on his experiences at Kent School in Connecticut, where he graduated in 1975.

• The Farrelly brothers produced the movie but did not direct it. At the time, it was their first production after establishing themselves as major comedy filmmakers, and they were occupied with making "There's Something About Mary."

• The production was independently financed with a reported $7 million budget before Miramax acquired the completed film. Financing was assembled from a group of private investors after several studios declined the project.

• The fictional prep-school setting was filmed largely at the University of Rhode Island's Kingston campus. The scenes presented as the dean's office at Brown University were also filmed at URI, using the former dean of admissions office in Green Hall.

• Although the movie was released in 1999, principal photography began on October 27, 1997. The production's extended path from filming to release contributed to its arrival after "There's Something About Mary" had made the Farrelly name much more closely associated with broad gross-out comedy.