The Girl Next Door

The Girl Next Door (2004)
Dir: Luke Greenfield
Starring: Elisha Cuthbert, Emile Hirsch

This film was recommended to me by Livvie, who told me it wasn't as crude as it looks and is actually really sweet, but to not watch it with your parents. That was very good advice, and it saved me from what would have been some extremely embarrassing moments.

The Girl Next Door is about a charming young man called Matthew Kidman (played by Emile Hirsch, my new celebrity crush) who is class president and headed for a good college and whatnot, who is about to graduate high school, and feels he should be doing more crazy stuff than he is. He has two best friends, the pervy, sex-obsessed, but very funny Eli, and the geeky, anxious Klitz (played by Paul Dano of The Ballad of Jack and Rose and Little Miss Sunshine. I have also found out that he was in The King, which I have also seen and hated. All my friends think he is hot but I find him really creepy-looking. ). Anyway, one day Matthew meets Danielle, a beautiful girl who has temporarily moved in next door. The two fall in love, but then Matthew finds out she is a porn star and everything goes haywire. He now has to save her from a life of sleazy movie-making, so they can live happily ever after. However, her producer Kelly doesn't like this plan and there is a whole fiasco involving money and penis-shaped trophies, leading to Matthew and his friends having to produce a little porn themselves. Basically, the film is a high school comedy about the porn industry. I know, original, huh?

Livvie was right. It is sweet. Matthew and Danielle make a really cute couple and it's all very romantic. Good performances from them both. Eli and Klitz make very funny, oddball sidekicks. The plot is very original with plenty of twists you don't see coming (very rare in a movie of this genre).

Reading the quotes page on IMDb, I've realised how much they swear in this movie. It is a LOT. Also, there are topless lap dancers and several clips of porno movies, so do not, under any circumstances, watch it with your parents.

I noticed Autumn Reeser (Taylor from The OC) in a small role in it, alongside Olivia Wilde (Alex in The OC)! Isn't that cool? And they didn't know that they would both guest star on the same TV series. Ah. Yeah, I know, only I would get excited by something like that.

Not much else to say about it really. I couldn't find any obvious flaws in it but it's not absolutely amazing either. It is a sweet, slightly adult, teen comedy with an imaginative plot. And who doesn't like that?

A-

Talliestar

Ferrari: I know I lost my virginity at prom. How about you? When did you lose your virginity?
April: When I was ten.
Ferrari: Okay, moving on...