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THE GIRL NEXT DOOR Send This Review to a Friend
Schoolboy fantasy time is provided by "The Girl Next Door," which taps into young male libidos that can be titillated by the very notion of having a chance to make it with a one-time porn star. The nice part about this youth flick is that it isn't loaded with comedy that merely aims to be gross. For all the concentration on fantasizing about sex, it is a rather sweet romantic tale and the members of the cast, even those playing oddballs, are appealing, easy company.
Matt Kidman, engagingly portrayed by Emile Hirsch, is eighteen and hoping for a scholarship enabling him to attend college. He has to give a speech on moral fiber that may earn him one. He and his buddies are sex-starved, and a situation to salivate over arrives out of the blue. Beautiful Danielle, pleasingly played by Elisha Cuthbert of the TV series "24," temporarily moves next door to Matt, and he is smitten. What he doesn't know, and what one of his pals will learn and tell him about, is that Danielle has been a porn star. She wants out, and he wants in.
The screenplay by Stuart Blumberg, David T. Wagner and Brent Goldberg takes it from there, keeping the complications mounting and introducing us to the nasty Kelly (Timothy Olyphant), Danielle's former porn producer. Kelly doesn't want to let go of his meal ticket and is giving Matt a rough time for trying to help her shed her past. Matt's life is plunged into turmoil and misunderstandings with Danielle, and his future education is threatened.
The story is thoroughly improbable on virtually all counts, especially a student solution to trouble that results in making a pseudo-porn movie at the prom. But director Luke Greenfield and his cast make it congenial fun in the context of the genre. A 20th Century Fox release.
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