Girl Next Door (Unrated) Review
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Yes, she is clothed under that brown paper.
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arizona1121, United States of America (Reviewer Ranking: 1) wrote this review on December 24, 2005:
I can see where the 2004 film entitled "The Girl Next Door" (they have been making films with this title since 1914) would be squarely in the crosshairs of critics. In this film, which obviously wants to be "Risky Business" for this generation the titular character turns out to be a porn star, whose real name is Danielle (Elisha Cuthbert, finally getting away from being daddy's little girl on "24"). Fortunately, Matthew Kidman (Emile Hirsch; bend your mind around the idea of him as the next Tom Cruise) falls in love with her at first sight and has to be informed of her vocation by his friend Eli (Chris Marquette; who is as far removed from his character on "Joan of Arcadia" as you can get).
Now, on the one hand the idea of a teenage boy getting involved with a teenage porn star is rather offensive. I mean just think about it in real world terms and unless you are a teenage boy there are some serious problems with this idea. Add to this the fact that the trailers for this movie made it seem like this was another innocent teenage boy hooks up with slightly older beautiful woman (you know, the entire good boy meets hot girl sub-genre), so when you throw a bunch of "adult film" actresses into the mix it certainly violates expectations. No wonder this movie was nominated for a Teen Choice Award as a Choice Movie Your Parents Didn't Want You to See.
But what salvages this film is that it really is about the boy next door. They keep telling us that Danielle is a porn star, and we see some rather tame clips from her films, but despite the encouragement of his friends to the contrary (and the one obligatory misstep) Matthew sees her as Danielle, the girl next door, and not the porn star. So, since we like the kid, whose dream is to win a scholarship so he can afford to go to Georgetown, we are inclined to see her this way too. Besides, it is not like she really acts like a porn star (fill in your own idea of what that would be, because whatever it is, she does not do it) and Cuthbert wisely stays away from full nudity, knowing full well it is sexier that way.
In the end "The Girl Next Door" is really just a love story, which will not only surprise but also disappoint those who are looking for a raunchy teenage sex comedy. Of course there are all sorts of "Risky Business" like complications involving $25,000 to bring the next Einstein to America from Cambodia and Danielle's producer Kelly (Timothy Olyphant, in a scene stealing role) who does not like the idea of some high school boy getting his girl to give up show business. Kelly is as close as Luke Greenfield's film gets to the sleazy side of the adult entertainment film industry, but his idea of how to mess with the kid is more creative than violent and I really did like his reaction to the twist the film takes at the end. I was wavering on whether to round up or down from the 3.5 this film was going to get from me, and that was enough to shift the scale towards the high end.
In the end your ability to enjoy this film is going to come down to how much you like the two stars, whether you are offended there is not more sex, and how much it bothers you that "The Girl Next Door" follows the "Risky Business" playbook from start to finish. The comedy is better than the sex and I was thinking more about the old Andy Hardy movies where the kids decide to put on a show during the end of this film as anything else. Maybe it was wrong to laugh at some of the hijinks in this film, but that was what I was doing, although it seems strange to be giving credit to a movie for not going to far given all the opportunities that it has to do so. But you do get credit for negotiating the curves in this world, which is why "The Girl Next Door" is probably going to become a late night cable cult classic (albeit in the "rated" version of the film).
Provided by Lawrance M. Bernabo
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