Surprisingly mature teen movie

Rating: Null/10 (13 November 2004)

SPOILERS
In the last ten years the teen, sex obsessed film, has been a favourite of film companies. With films like "American Pie" and "Road Trip", the genre developed well. Since the turn of the millennium however, this genre became almost a joke in itself. With people criticising the stories for being plain and an opportunity for topless women, this collection of teenage dream stories began to collapse. It was with a certain amount of worry that I watched "The Girl Next Door". The notion of a teenage comedy about pornography is basically going to be the ultimate teen flick with topless women constantly. Or so we would think, because whilst the plot is porn based, and there are a few scenes involving breasts, "The Girl Next Door" is in fact one of the more clever teen films to appear in the last few years.
Matthew Kidman (Emile Hirsch) is your typical high school nobody. With a planned future in politics, Matt remembers his school years as uneventful and unmemorable. This is until Danielle (Elisha Cuthbert) moves in next door however. Granting Matt a new view on life, Danielle accidentally exposes him to the porn industry after her former career is exposed.
The idea of a guy who falls for a former porn star is not a particularly appealing story. In fact, the entire notion is abysmal. As a consequence, "The Girl Next Door" should really be dumped on the ever growing pile of weak teen movies with no plot and excessive nudity. Ultimately though, the film tricks us all.
The beauty of "The Girl Next Door" is that it really is a well thought out movie. Limiting the nudity which you'd expect, the film focuses more on bringing Matt and Danielle together, whilst simultaneously bringing the young male out of his shell. Using the porn background as an escape route in fact, the story never exploits it's potential material and prefers to deal with it as something flawed and degrading. Seemingly condemning pornography as desperate tactics, the film focuses on the idea of the "moral person" rather than nudity.
With all teen films, there tends to be this one sidekick sort of character who always gives us the laughs. In "The Girl Next Door" we're given not just the nerd like Klitz (Paul Dano) but the superb porn obsessed Eli (Chris Marquette). With two quality sidekicks, Matt the hero is encouraged on his route and is actually shown to appreciate his friends. Perhaps in fact, this is the films greatest message. For all the potential nudity in a film about the porn industry, the story always concentrates it's messages in the direction of self advancement and the idea of friendship. We're never meant to believe that sex is this wonderful thing we're meant to do. In fact, often the film presents the opposite view. What the story tells us is that irrelevant of what happens in our lives, our friends will be there for us.
"The Girl Next Door" could quite easily have fallen into that category of being another teen, nudity filled movie. With a bit of intelligence however, the story stands out above others as an almost moral barrier. The film shows us that whilst sex and pornography are rampant in the modern world (one middle aged friend of our hero appearing in a strip club), the most important part of life is simply having people around who understand and appreciate you. For another addition to your teen genre, "The Girl Next Door" is a surprisingly impressive film.