In the Back Row

with Allison McKinley © 2004

Film: The Girl Next Door
Twentieth Century Fox Home Video

Allison's review in ten words or fewer: Sexy, funny, original, shocking; a 'teen' film for adults only.

Grade: B

Genre: Comedy/Romance/Drama
Rating (USA): MPAA- R (Unrated version reviewed)
Runtime: 109 Minutes
Release Date (DVD): August 2004
Starring: Emile Hirsch, Elisha Cuthbert, Timothy Olyphant
Special DVD Features: Trivia track, commentary, making of the featurette "A Look Next Door", deleted scenes, stills gallery

* * *

It is not quite as funny as "Eurotrip", and I'm certain that the makers of "The Girl Next Door" never figured out who their target audience was. However, once again, though the film did not perform well at the box office, it has been doing a brisk business in DVD sales and rentals (Amazon.com's user rating for "Eurotrip" is three and a half stars, with a current sales rank of 576. The rating by users for "Girl" is four stars and a rank of 216).

Why? I would suspect that the most avid viewers of this film are not teens at all, but older gentlemen who would not want to be caught standing in line to see it, businessmen on the road, and weekend jocks who slip this disc into the DVD player when they're supposed to be watching the game while the wives are out shopping. This is pure, grown-up-boy fantasy.

Many have compared this flick to Risky Business, the 1983 hit that had Tom Cruise dancing his way into our hearts in just his underwear, but it's not all that clever, nor is it all that complicated. "The Girl Next Door" relies more than anything on the charm of its characters and the sheer deadly beauty of Elisha Cuthbert to win the audience.

Matthew, played by Emile Hirsch (The Dangerous Lives of Alter Boys), is a hard working A student on his way to great things, until one day he looks out his bedroom window and there in the house next door she stands, removing her clothes. Matthew watches, mesmerised. She catches him and turns out her light, and a moment later knocks on his front door. Does she rat him out to his parents?

No. She introduces herself to mum and dad as the neighbour's niece and says she's house sitting while auntie is away (it's the equivalent of, "Hello, I'm Danielle. Can your son come out and play?") Elisha Cuthbert is very good at this role, the innocent girl next door who has a bad past. She is sexy, sulky, and just plain beautiful.

Matthew does come out to play with Danielle, and quickly falls in love. But soon, a friend of his, who has a penchant for porn and an extensive library of same, shows Matthew his beautiful girlfriend on the adult silver screen.

Our hero feels his love can redeem Danielle, and Danielle wants to regain her youth and innocence, but then Kelly enters the fray. That's Danielle's producer/promoter/pimp, by the way, played to the hilt by Timothy Olyphant in a performance that is all but wasted on this film. We even start to like Kelly, but he has a dark side, as does this film. Kelly makes off with funds from the school's "Exchange Student" kitty, leaving Matthew with more than a few scores to even.

Does this deter Matthew and his geeky friends? No. When the going gets tough, these tough guys get going and work out a little plan of their own. This involves a visit to the porno convention in Las Vegas, a little shady double-dealing, and producing their own film. Sorry, I can't say more.

While my review may seem a bit cynical, in the end, no teenagers were actually harmed in the making of this film, and I quite enjoyed the whole affair. It had its rough moments, to be sure, but those got washed out by the happy ending.

For a director who had very little going for him (a fairly popular short called "The Right Hook", and an artistic flop that proved to be a box office bonanza, "The Animal" starring Adam Sandler's SNL buddy Rob Schneider), Luke Greenfield did well to land this project. His directing may not have been the most even I've ever seen, but the studio thought well enough of his performance (and the overall monetary performance of this film) to offer him a three-film deal.

If you're looking for light entertainment, a few laughs, and you want to be shocked and titillated just a little, rent this DVD for the evening. Oh, and lock the kids and younger teens out.