Monday

I believe The Girl Next Door is an interesting film, different and original, but I don't think, overall, that it is a good one. My main problem was one of structure. The first half is occupied with him trying to get the girl. He achieves this, and delivers the speech he has been preparing, receives a standing ovation, but misses out on the scholarship. A whole new plot arc then opens up as he tries to raise some money stolen from him. We are asked to engage and sympathise with the characters again on another enterprise (which is hard if you hadn't, like me, even done so from the beginning). The girl, who was central to the first half, has very little part to play in this. In fact, her character changes completely. To begin with she isn't much more than a male fantasy. He follows her around because she is attractive and adventurous. She likes him because he doesn't know she's a porn star. The relationship is not mutual. Then, suddenly he is following her to Las Vegas. All I could think at this stage was 'what are you doing?'. The rather dark idea of under-age and forced pornography is skirted around, and two people who in reality would never be compatible suddenly are. The development wasn't fluid. Next there is the 'drugged/drunk while everyone else is sober' scene, which is in almost every teen movie, and which is never funny. Anyway, eventually the school geeks become successful, which is always a bad thing. It seemed muddled and scrappy, unsure of what it should be. The film does have, however, two great characters and performances from Chris Marquette and Timothy Olyphant, and is very funny in parts - mostly from these two. Perhaps my expectations were too high?