Director: Luke Greenfield
Writers: David Wagner (story) (as David T. Wagner) , Brent Goldberg (story), 3 more credits »
Stars: Emile Hirsch, Nicholas Downs, Elisha Cuthbert
Storyline
18-year-old Matthew Kidman is a straight 'A' over-achiever who feels that he has never really lived life to the full. That is, until he meets 'the girl next door'. Danielle moves in next door, and Matthew thinks he's found the girl of his dreams. All is going well, until Matthew's sex-mad friend Eli reveals that Danielle is actually a ex-porn star. Matthew doesn't know how to take the news or how to treat Danielle, and things go from bad to worse when Danielle's former producer Kelly appears to take her back.Gladiator Movie Reviews
Responsibility for "The Girl Next Door"'s poor performance at the US
box office - as well as over here - can be laid firmly at the feet of
Twentieth Century Fox's marketing people; the tagline "Matt never saw
her coming - but all his friends had!" made it seem like a full-on sex
comedy, when it's actually a lot more than that; director Luke
Greenfield and writers Stuart Blumberg, David T. Wagner and Brent
Goldberg put more emphasis on the characters than the raunch, which
makes all the difference. There's more to the movie than the sight of
Elisha Cuthbert in a thong (in interviews she revealed that it is indeed
her there... if not elsewhere in the movie).
The debt this movie owes to "Risky Business" - starting with the score by ex-Tangerine Dream member Paul Haslinger (Tangerine Dream scored "Risky Business") - is pretty clear; both movies have bright but slightly life-challenged graduate students given to fantasising about things that go wrong as their main characters (step forward Emile Hirsch as the sympathetic hero), both have sex-obsessed best friends, both have women in the sex business as the main female characters who come into the hero's uptight life and help to liberate him, and both have sleazy male bosses (Timothy Olyphant plays the Guido equivalent). The movie also has the same mostly restrained view of its story where other movies would have played up the farce aspects
The debt this movie owes to "Risky Business" - starting with the score by ex-Tangerine Dream member Paul Haslinger (Tangerine Dream scored "Risky Business") - is pretty clear; both movies have bright but slightly life-challenged graduate students given to fantasising about things that go wrong as their main characters (step forward Emile Hirsch as the sympathetic hero), both have sex-obsessed best friends, both have women in the sex business as the main female characters who come into the hero's uptight life and help to liberate him, and both have sleazy male bosses (Timothy Olyphant plays the Guido equivalent). The movie also has the same mostly restrained view of its story where other movies would have played up the farce aspects
- the only real hi-jinks come when the movie's plot takes in the Adult Film
The mood set up in the early stages is so convincing that when Olyphant's porn producer character turns up the movie seems to turn into another one entirely (and if you go to see this because of Elisha's "one for the men" status, I must warn you that she spends alarming amounts of time off-screen); it's still a good one, but it damages the overall movie's tone, and for most of the rest of the movie it veers back and forth between sweet and sleazy... but the amazing thing is that "The Girl Next Door" actually manages to find a happy balance of the two by the time the prom climax arrives (with more echoes of "Risky Business" en route, for sure).
True, there's no actual sex seen and little nudity, but the cast works so well and the movie's so sincere that by the end it doesn't seem like a ripoff. With good use of songs blending with the score, well-done fantasy sequences, and a welcome dose of intelligence in its writing, "The Girl Next Door" is probably the most adorable movie to get an R rating since "Pretty Woman," and well worth seeing even if you don't have a thing for Kim off "24." But this isn't for the "Daily Sport" crowd. Which is their loss.