| “MY name is Elisha Cuthbert and this is the longest day of my life." In Girl Next Door, Cuthbert takes her first step into moviedom after her breakthrough role as the constantly-being-kidnapped Kim Bauer in the phenomonally successful series 24, writes Jack McKeown.
She stars as 19-year-old Danielle, a big time porn star who moves to a quiet suburban neighbourhood to start a new life.
In an attempt to start afresh, she embarks on a relationship with ambitious high school senior Matthew (Emile Hirsch), but the fairytale romance begins to unravel when he finds out about her past.
It’s not long before — egged on by his schoolboy pals — he rents a sleazy motel room and naively tries to treat her as he imagines a porn star should be.
Needless to say, this ruins things, and Danielle gives up her attempt to change and flees back to Las Vegas to resume her old career, with Matthew in hot pursuit and desperate for a second chance.
It’s like a rehash of Risky Business, with a hefty dollop of American Pie-inspired humour, all wrapped up in a pretty little rom-com bow.
Cuthbert does well in her first outing as a leading lady. After spending months addicted to 24, I kept expecting her to be kidnapped at any second, with Kiefer Sutherland repeatedly bounding on screen to rescue her.
But she stands up as a film star in her own right. She is truly beautiful and, although her role is too limited to really tell, it seems she does have some acting talent.
Hirsch is decent in his role as a talented student who wants to be part of the in-crowd, although the part could have been played just as competently by any of about a dozen other good-looking teen actors.
The one actor who really raises the film is Timothy Olyphant, who plays Danielle’s former boss, a porn producer and charismatic rogue.
Firing on all cylinders like a young Jack Nicholson, Olyphant stamps his personality on the film and injects some much-needed talent and humour.
Girl Next Door didn’t really leave me satisfied, and there are enough holes in the plot to drive a bus through, but it is good fun and I was never bored watching it.
The unusual combination of laddish, close-to-the-bone humour along with romantic will-they-won’t-they tension means there’s something for the boys and the girls to enjoy.
Just one question — why don’t any of my neighbours look like Elisha Cuthbert? |
