An eccentric teen movie?

Rating: 7/10 (3 January 2005)

I had read the similarities between this film and "Risky Business" which launched Tom Cruise into stardom. I hadn't really thought about it that much, even while watching the movie as much.. Even the next day now, I still really hadn't connected it as much until I read someone pointing out very very specific instances, and I do see them now more clearly.. But, Risky Business was a product of it's time.. Whereas this movie, it doesn't seem as much to be.. oddly. Starting with the rather eccentric soundtrack, in the opening scene? Queen and David Bowie's "Under Pressure", this eclectic song choice fits the main character, quite well..
As do some of the other musical choices, while some are of the more obvious "soundtrack selling" titles they all seem to make sense taken in their proper context, while most of the soundtrack seems more a throwback to 70s and 80s.
The more risqué elements of "Risky Business" have been more or less jettisoned, although there is some topless nudity, (I refer to the UNRATED CUT on R1 DVD). Unexpectedly though, there's more of a relationship story in the film than I expected as well.
The one thing in Risky Business I never really considered, would these two people stay together? While they had a fiery sexual tension.. I didn't really see a "relationship".
Another similarity, in a nod to Risky Business is the bad guy.. who is actually given a bit more screen time. Joe Pantoliano only got to establish himself as the "heavy", also the friend characters (Curtis Armstrong, Bronson Pinchot) were never given much time to develop as characters in their own right.
Those are not missteps, but character development was not high on the list of that film's priorities. Aside from the main character of Joel, and his lady. Even then there seemed only more growth in Joel, which remains similar in this film with the male lead getting most of the development.
This film.. although a bit more "silly", although not going for the slapstick of American Pie, than the film I would consider its spiritual father figure.
Both characters share the same problem. They both have daydreams.. but,it's not the daydreams themselves.. but their inability, even as this one in its closing moments puts it dead out there if you hadn't been paying attention, to live for the moment and not see every bad thing that COULD happen.
This happens several times to Joel as he imagines scenarios, that go horribly awry.. this is acknowledged early on in this film in a scene where the main character is planning to "ditch school". How he sees how everything could develop, and where it could go bad. And in the end chickening out.. in the end, both characters learn to live in the moment and step up, so to speak.
As for the performances, I can actually only give good marks all around. From the leads, to the eccentric friends, and the two are they, aren't they bad guys.
What surprised me most was the work put into the "bad guy" character played by Timothy Olyphant who can be a nice and charming older brother one moment, and then a cold, calculating, and menacingly evil the next. But.. in the end, he's really not a clear bad guy.. sure he does bad things, as his interest in the film is the "money". He's a businessman pure and simple, and when his business is threatened, he isn't shy about letting people know.
Sadly the under used parents.. mostly Timothy Bottoms, who plays the father, who I last saw doing quite the image of our Commander and Chief George Bush. But, for what's there.. the characters, are much more explored and used well... the friends are definitely caricatures but they are funny and well used. Whereas in Risky Business the friends just, almost seem to vanish later in the film, whereas this one is much more using them throughout.
Even to the detriment of not showing "The Girl" of the title as much. The story becomes more and more about her, and trying to fix the problem he got himself into, much like in Risky Business, but gets rather.. I would say complicated, but that is the wrong word.
But her character seems to disappear in the background, and it becomes more of the leading man's character to try and save her from herself, and the world she's falling into. Although she isn't on screen, she's still very much a part of the story.
Special nods though to Cuthbert, Hirsch and Olyphant in their respective roles. Cutherbert who has such a sensual demeanor, while sometimes not even realizing it. Uses that to full effect, while also showing moments of vulnerability, and humor. Hirsh of course is the "good looking" geek guy.. Who goes from being scared to growing up by the end of the film. and learning what many of us do, sometimes you have to do the wrong thing to do the right one.
Olyphant though I single special praise though.. Because he goes from such a nice and almost charming older brother, to a menacingly and slimy character with such ease.. Your initial thought would be, what a slimeball, but he turns that perception quickly on it's ear.. but then, later in the film pulls the 180 being the bad guy you thought he was the whole time.. but even in the end, he does hold respect for the kid. I think it was really a tricky performance, to make someone you shouldn't like likable, then makes you hate him.. but in the end, you still get a smile in his very small ending moment.
In the end.. I liked that all of the more main characters got their moment. Their time to do something. Sometimes silly, sometimes sweet.. It definitely was not the average teen sex comedy farce I'd expected..