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THE
GIRL NEXT DOOR
7/10
USA
2004 (copyright-dated 2003) : Luke GREENFIELD : 110 mins (approx)
High-flying
teenager Matthew Kidman (Hirsch) is preparing to apply for Washington’s
prestigious Georgetown University, the next stepping-stone on his path
to a political career. Distraction arrives, however, when the slightly
older, stunningly attractive Danielle (Cuthbert – 24’s Kim)
moves in next door. The pair start dating, but their romance soon hits
turbulence when Matthew discovers that Danielle has only recently retired
from acting in porn movies. Further complications ensue when Danielle’s
fomer producer Kelly (Timothy Olyphant) turns up, determined to lure his
star back in front of the cameras. Events rapidly spiral out of Matthew’s
control, with potentially disastrous consequences...
It seems as
though every bus-stop in the land is currently advertising The Girl
Next Door – the poster features a wide-eyed Matthew gawping through
a window at Danielle, who’s striking a ‘provocative’ pose in a tight-fitting
little red number. Though horny teenage lads will be drawn in, older audiences
won’t be attracted by the title, the Dude-Where’s-My-Porn-Star premise,
or the fact that director Greenfield was responsible for proudly lowbrow
Rob Schneider vehicle The Animal. It’s a package which also seems
unlikely to impress many film critics – expect plenty of broadsheet brickbats
echoing US trade-bible Variety,
who slated its “shamelessly derivative script [which] lopes from scene
to scene with little regard for pace, plausibility or tonal consistency.”
 But
as The Girl Next Door itself shows, appearances can be very deceptive
– this is one of the freshest, most entertaining, offbeat and unpredictable
romantic comedies to have come out of mainstream Hollywood in recent years.
Admittedly, the script (by Stuart Blumberg, David T Wagner and Brent Goldberg)
does borrow rather heavily from Risky Business, the 1983 guilty-pleasure
which propelled Tom Cruise to stardom. But their film does have a character
all of its own, an anything-goes unpredictability whose oddball atmosphere
recalls the more subversive examples of the 80s teen-comedy like Brian
Yuzna’s Society (1989).
It helps that
the supporting cast features top-notch character-actors like veteran James
Remar - an absolute hoot in his all-too-brief appearances as porn-baron
‘Hugo Posh’ – and Olyphant, whose Kelly is a mad-eyed blast of ferocious
charisma. His first appearance is heralded by Youth of Today’s rousing
hardcore-punk classic ‘Break Down the Walls’ – the soundtrack is notable
for its nifty uses of pop and rock numbers. Leads Hirsch (who shows definite
star quality) and Cuthbert make an appealing couple, and it’s to Greenfield
and his scripwriters’ credit that this relationship is handled with unusual
intelligence and seriousness for this type of movie. The Girl Next
Door is no masterpiece, and not all of it comes off – but compared
with the rest of the American teen comedies that infest our screens, it’s
positively Lubitsch-esque.
5th April,
2004
(seen 23rd January : Cineworld, Milton Keynes – CinemaDays
event)
by Neil
Young
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