"Country girl moves to the big city to chases her dreams and meets a boy in the process."

Rating: Null/10 (25 January 2001)

"Country girl moves to the big city to chases her dreams and meets a boy in the process." Sounds a little cliched doesn't it? I expected this to be a shallow feel-good film that was only worthy of watching on video. How pleasantly surprised I was. Finally a non-sci-fi American movie that's not about life somewhere in L.A.!
This is a good solid story. Not that this sort of coming-of-age thing hasn't been done many times before. It was the style with which it was exectued that caught my notice.
The all-American Piper Perabo playing the lead role of Violet `Jersey' Stanford was convincing consistently throughout the film. There's a lot of talent there. John Goodman was his usual brilliant self, although this role wasn't one where he could really stretch his wings. He's proven his talents many times before in roles such as `Walter Sobchak' in The Big Lebowsky.
The soundtrack is impressively not too focused on all the latest hits which was good. Classic songs by INXS and EMF gave film a real kick. The cameo appearance of Leanne Rimes wasn't overly obtrusive. It had the potential to be extremely corny, but I think they got away with it. Strange how Violet's otherwise beautiful songwriting turned into something a bit more Britney-Spears-ish when it came to the final song performance scene.
Unlike most other American films which include an Australian character, it was pleasing to note that at last they didn't write all those cheesy "That's not a knife" lines in. This guy was just playing himself. The Australian-isms were all very natural and true to life. And thank goodness there was no need for him to do any lines in an American accent - there's nothing more embarrasing to watch on the big screen.
The sets and shots of New York City were nicley done and not too gratuitous. (i.e. There was no Empire State, Statue of Libery, etc..) Some nice lighting effects in the grimy apartment buildings.
All in all a very well executed film. I give it a 7 out of 10.