Girl Next Door
The first thing that struck me like a lightning bolt about this failed attempt at a romantic teen comedy is the woeful miscasting of Emile Hirsch in the lead role: When casting for the part of a high school geek who canāt get laid, itās really NOT prudent to cast a pretty-boy male model type whose hair is always perfectly styled whom in real life would probably be getting pussy by the truckload (Itās like casting Chad Michael Murray as Lewis Skolnick). Adding to the problems is the fact that Hirsch has absolutely zero chemistry with co-star Elisha Cuthbert. As hard as she tries to make it work, every time the two of them are on camera together, I became very aware of Hirsch huffing and puffing and just plain overacting in order to convince us thereās an attraction, when really thereās about as many sparks there as a frozen icepick. Cuthbert fares quite a bit better as the porn star who moves next door: The camera absolutely LOVES her, and every little cute nuance and facial gesture resonates with the viewer, if not her co-star. Perhaps the biggest shame here is that the scenes developing their relationship take up only the first half, while in the second half Cuthbert is relegated to being a sideline character in essence cheering on her boyfriend. Also, director Luke Greenfield gets totally carried away with the āoh, itās not real, itās only a daydreamā storytelling technique to the point of frustration (including three times IN ONE SCENE), which totally kills much of the pacing of the story. The supporting cast does somewhat better, especially Timothy Olyphant as Cuthbertās old friend from the ābusinessā, effortlessly stealing every scene heās in despite the fact that the writing for his character is extremely erratic (first heās a cool guy, then heās a dickhead, then heās an asshole, then heās an outright villain, then heās back to somewhat being a cool guy again), but Olyphant bravely shoulders on and makes his turn the most likable in the film. Itās also nice to see to see 80s acting icon James Remar pop up here as a porn mogul who surprisingly turns out to be the savior of the story for the leads. And as Hirschās two best friends, Chris Marquette and Paul Dano (whom I didnāt even recognize at first) are a lot of fun as the sex-obsessed porno fan and nerdy misfit who get caught up in the high-jinx. The filmās comic setpieces are not really as funny as the director seems to think they are (except for the awesome lapdance scene), and the sequence where Hirsch is given a dose of Ecstasy (and Cuthbert practically condones its use), is borderline offensive, as we watch this character happily grooving away and talking about ājust living life my manā while tripping on a drug that has resulted in many real life deaths, not the best message to be sending to a target teen audience. The final twist though (concerning the actual nature of the film that the characters make at the end) is actually kinda clever, if unrealistic, and much of the soundtrack music selected is superb. In the end, with a better script and lead casting, coulda been great, but instead is below-averageā¦
5/10