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    The Girl Next Door

    Reviewed by
    adamwatchesmovies@

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    Overwhelmingly," The Girl Next Door" has been criticized because it resembles "Risky Business" too much. But what if you haven't seen the early Tom Cruise flick? Does the Elisha Cuthbert raunchy teen sex comedy warrant a watch? I think so, even if there are flaws in the film.

    Emile Hirsh plays Matthew Kidman, a bright kid who's getting ready for an important speech on "moral fiber". If he nails it, he's guaranteed a scholarship to college. Enter the girl next door, a sexpot named Danielle (played by Elisha Cuthbert) who takes a liking to him. Their relationship grows, then hits a snag when Matthew learns that she's an ex-adult film star. Matthew has to figure out if he can accept his girlfriend's past, deal with it when some of her former co-workers show up and nail that big speech too.

    As far as raunchy teen comedies go, this one is pretty tame. There are no gross-out jokes and although there are sequences with plenty of nudity, even those are mild. This is a film that centers on pornography! You’d expect to see some full-frontal and more than a few quick glances at male genitalia too, right? I’ll take the risk of sounding like a pig with this one, but we also don’t get to see Elisha Cuthbert in her birthday suit, a big letdown. I’m not saying it was an essential component, but it wouldn’t have been outlandish to expect it, am I right? It doesn't really feel like the movie deals completely with its subject matter, though it does explore some of the issues around objectifying women, which is nice to balance things out.

    Where the film earns some points back is in the casting and the chemistry between the actors. Timothy Oliphant plays a great creep. Although there are no scenes where he isn't a complete jerk he somehow manages to feel like a real person instead of a cartoon. As for the two leads they're well cast (even though if you've seen even a handful of pornographic material you'll realize that Cuthbert doesn't quite have that porn starlet look... don't ask me how I know that) and their romance is convincing. I even enjoyed Matthew's buddies, the comedic sidekicks who provide many laughs when their ineptitude in the realm of sex gets exposed.

    The movie gets its standard (and predictable) plot points out of the way quickly, so you do get that obligatory breakup, and the reunion too, but you don't see it lingering over the characters like a sword of Damocles for an hour before it happens. There are also some nice twists when it comes to the antagonist and the ending is strong. I think it gets a bit too schmaltzy between Matthew and Danielle at times, but that’s ok. I found more chuckles than big laughs in the running time, though a scene at a strip club where that’s quite hilarious stands out as particularly strong. It's not a comedic powerhouse but it's entertaining all the way through.

    Overall "The Girl Next Door" has a few raunchy bits and a sweet romance. II say it probably works better for the casual movie-goer than someone who's seen a lot of films and will recognize the material it pulls from. If you're drawn to it because of its premise you'll be disappointed that it only skims the surface on the material. It's worth checking out but you'll likely outgrow it when you see more stories along the same lines. (Unrated version on Dvd, June 16, 2013)

    5
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    adamwatchesmovies@  6.7.2016 age: 26-35 2,867 reviews

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