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GET
OVER IT
6/10
USA
2001
director : Tommy O’Haver
script : R Lee Fleming, Jr
cinematography : Maryse Alberti
editing : Jeff Betancourt
music : Steve Bartek
lead actors : Ben Foster, Kirsten Dunst, Shane West, Martin Short
87 minutes
Get
Over It is an unforgivably bland title even for a teen romantic comedy, but the movie
turns out to be pretty well named – infectiously breezy but nothing special,
likeable and forgettable in roughly equal measure. While leads Foster
and Dunst (the latter misleadingly top-billed) aren’t among the most convincing
screen couples, the movie isn’t really that bothered about the lovey-dovey
nuts and bolts, which are strictly join-the-dots. Berke (Foster) is outraged
when his longtime girlfriend Allison (Melissa Sagemiller) dumps him in
favour of English boyband veteran Bentley ‘Striker’ Scrumfeld.
Determined
to win Allison back, Berke enrols alongside the lovebirds in his high-school’s
all-singing all-dancing musical version of ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream,’
directed by egomaniac drama teacher Desmond Forrest-Oates (Short). Problem
is, Berke can’t sing or dance, or even act, but Kelly (Dunst), multi-talented
sister of his best pal Felix (Colin Hanks, son of Tom) is on hand to offer
lessons. Soon, friendship turns to fondness, etc etc etc.
It’s
flimsy stuff, but director O’Haver has two trump cards at his disposal
– as ever, Short expertly wrings every last drop of comic potential out
of his suitably extravagant part, aided by some brief, thought-bubble
flashbacks of his own disastrous showbiz career: the ‘Diana Ross’ segment
is a particular treat. Short has long been one of the best-value comic
character actors in Hollywood, so it’s surprising to see him being given
a run for his money in the scene-stealing stakes by the relatively unknown
West.
Devilishly
handsome, Striker’s singing voice and dancing skills, honed during his
days with the ‘Swingtown Lads,’ are only undermined by his absurd ‘English’
accent. But like most things in this happy-go-lucky hour-and-a-half, it’s
all played for laughs as the lad’s ‘cockernee’ tones are compared with
those of Mary Poppins and Madonna. It’s amusingly impossible to tell if
either West or Scrumfeld are English or American (the actor’s from Louisiana),
and there’s the added complication that the West’s dialogue sounds distinctly
“looped in” afterwards – one suspects it’s Short again, performing double-duty
behind the scenes…
This
confusion isn’t a problem, nor does it detract from West’s nicely loathable
cockiness as a transatlantic, slightly less manic cousin of Matthew Lillard
from She’s All That.
It’s
no mean feat to stand out from what’s an unusually large and skilled ensemble
of young actors (disappointingly, the end credits are of the conventional
rather than the ‘picture’ variety, so we can’t easily work out who’s who.)
R’n’b star Sisqo acquits himself well in a prominent role as another of
Berke’s mates, his unexpected lack of inches proving no bar to success
on the basketball court, and even the smallest roles are conspicuously
well filled, with Christopher Jacot and cult favourite Park
Bench making disproportionate impact as prima-donna leading man and
stoner backstage technician respectively.
O’Haver’s
handling of the actors is top notch, but otherwise he walks a wobbly line
between engaging daftness and off-putting silliness, most of the time
falling the right side of the divide – a slapstick scene where a gorgeous
but accident-prone Kiwi babe (Kylie Bax) wrecks a Chinese restaurant could
have been a disaster but ends up a smashing success. And if the picture’s
disaparate strands never quite come together, there are sufficient highspots
– invariably featuring Short and/or West – to lift it out of the usual
run of teen-targeted fare.
19th
July, 2001
(seen
Jul-19-01, UGC Boldon, Sunderland)
by Neil
Young
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