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Girl Next Door, The
(2004)
Starring:
Emile Hirsch, Elisha Cuthbert
Director: Luke Greenfield
Rating: R
Studio:
20th Century Fox
Release Date:
04.09.04
Review
Posted: 04.09.04
Spoilers:
Minor
By
Sara M. Fetters
Surprising "Girl" a Knock Worth Answering
Eighteen-year-old Matthew Kidman (Emile Hirsch, “The Dangerous Lives
of Altar Boys”) is a kid with his head on straight. Class president,
he’s obsessed with raising the money necessary to bring a brilliant
young Asian student to the U.S. to study. On top of that, Mat is also
eager to win a local scholarship that will guarantee he’ll be able to
attend the school of his dreams, Georgetown University in Washington,
D.C.
Still,
something tugs at his consciousness, the sight of other seniors
cutting class to frolic at a local beach enough to make him ponder the
things he’s missed out on due to his straight-A persona. Matthew can
only wonder, can he, too, be a risk-taker? Is he willing to do the
unexpected, especially where it comes to love? Or will his
insecurities and by-the-book nebbishes win out in the end?
When
the beautiful and exotic Danielle (Elisha Cuthbert of Fox’s “24”)
moves in next door, it becomes readily apparent all of the young man’s
questions will be more than answered. Where he’s shy, she’s outgoing;
where Mat is insecure, Danielle seams to brim over with confidence.
Together, she’ll help him discover there is more to life than can be
found in books. Heck, maybe they’ll even find love. But when the
college-freshman-to-be discovers his seemingly innocent next door
neighbor was once a scantily clad porn star, can their relationship
last under the glare of triple-X indiscretion?
Working
from a screenplay by Stuart Bloomberg (“Keeping the Faith”) and a
story by “My Baby’s Mama” writers David T. Wagner and Brent Goldberg,
director Luke Greenfield’s (“Animal’) sophomore effort “The Girl Next
Door” at first glance has everything working against it. It’s crass,
unfunny trailers make it look like nothing but an anemic “American
Pie” knock-off, while the story line bares so much of a resemblance to
the John Hughes high school factory of films (“The Breakfast Club,”
“Pretty in Pink,” et al) it’s nearly insulting.
Yet,
for all that, “The Girl Next Door” comes ever-so close to working.
Reminding me of the Marshall Brickman coming-of-age classic “Risky
Business,” Greenfield achieves a darkly absurdist tone, pushing the
limits of taste to just the right breaking point as to make his tale
of youthful impropriety and innocence lost and gained ring that much
more genuine. For growing up isn’t an entirely clean affair, the
chances for sexual and social experimentation so unbridled even the
most goody-goody dip their feet in the murky waters – if only to just
get their feet wet.
It was
that sort of energy that infused Brickman’s film. Unafraid to go the
darker nether regions of sexual exploration, “Risky Business” never
became too serious to lose its sense of fun, yet still just edgy
enough to cackle with arsenic-laced glee. Granted, it helped immensely
that the movie contained one of the great star-making performances of
our time, the director unleashing a sparkly-eyed Tom Cruise upon the
world in all his tidy-whitie, Ray Ban wearing glory.
There
is no breakout performance here. While Hirsch is a perfectly amicable
leading man, he is not gifted with either Cruise’s matinee idol good
looks or his effervescent charm. What he does have, however, is a
gleeful vigor that’s far more akin to the types of kids I knew in high
school than Cruise ever was. He’s a regular guy, someone I could
vividly picture sitting next to me in my AP History classes. And it is
just that sort of charisma that carries Hirsch through the film. No
matter how silly the script gets, no matter how muddled Greenfield’s
direction becomes, the actor manages to swim right through it. His is
a performance of real depth, of endearing maturity, and like
contemporaries Jake Gyllenhaal (“Donnie Darko”) and Tobey Maguire
(“Seabiscuit,” “Spider-Man”), Hirsch is an every-day looking kid with
an acting ability beyond his years.
Too bad
I can’t be as effusive in regards to his costar. Sure it is fun
watching the cute-as-a-button Cuthbert masquerade as a porn star, but
her performance is so cold it’s hard to imagine her heating up an ice
cube, let alone someone’s bed. And whereas Rebecca DeMornay willingly
took her role as a slinky call girl to the limit in “Risky Business,”
the doe-eyed Cuthbert never once gets in touch with the down and dirty
side of her character. I’m not saying she needed to get naked for the
role, but at least the hint of doing so would have added some
passion to the picture and given Danielle a bit of a nasty side, her
journey to regain innocence then that much more believable.
The
rest of the cast does what they can. Both Chris Marquette (“Freddy vs.
Jason”) and especially Paul Dano (“The Emperor’s Club”) have their
moments as Hirsch’s nerdy friends, while perennial bad guy James Remar
is having a devilish good time playing a porn king whom may just have
the keys to Mat and Danielle’s future happiness. Then there is Timothy
Olyphant (“Dreamcatcher”). For all intents and purposes, he’s stuck
playing pretty much the same role that put him on the map just a few
years ago in Doug Liman’s exuberant “Go,” only this time he’s a dealer
in sex not drugs. While the actor is dangerously charming, I’m getting
tired of watching him go through these motions film after film. I kept
imagining a lesser known face in the role, and each time I did “The
Girl Next Door” just kept getting better deep within my imagination.
Yet,
Greenfield and company finally won me over with a final so
paradoxically smarmy and enchanting I almost couldn’t believe my eyes.
This is one prom-themed final that ranks right up there with some of
the best. Much like Cruise’s character turning his home into a brothel
in “Risky Business,” Hirsch turns his school into the largest amateur
porn studio known to man. And when the final twist comes, what is
surprising is not that there is a twist to begin– there is always a
twist, after all – but that it is so brilliantly irresistible.
Sure the director is trying to make a film that can be compared in
future years to the likes of “The Graduate,” “Risky Business” and
“Spanking the Monkey,” and on that front he and his team of writers
cannot help but fail. But, on its own limited terms, there is much to
enjoy, Greenfield crafting a bubbly pop froth that goes down like
particularly fruity peach schnapps. Like the UPS guy delivering a
surprising package of good tiding, “The Girl Next Door” is a knock
worth answering.
Film Rating:
ęę1/2 (out of
4)
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