Overly contrived, unfocused teen comedy which has its moments, but doesn't work

Rating: 5/10 (3 July 2010)

What sounded like a fun, sexy inventive comedy just stands to prove, that like people or anything else in the world, looks can be deceiving.
The Girl Next Door is not entirely dead in the water, but it's disappointing. Comedies can get away with being impossible for sure, but this film starts out rather strait forward, and then progressively defies common sense without adding any real humour or wit to justify it. Everynow and then, I did find myself laughing, (out loud even) but these moments are too few and far between in a rather lame screenplay, which doesn't amount to much.
Another problem is the lack of character. I wanted to care for the two love birds that the movie is supposed to be about, but their romance is highly unbelievable and turns out to be the last of the film's interests. We spend more time with characters that really don't have any major importance, and the film's attempts to make them important don't work.
So much happens in the film, that about one hour in, you'd think it's about to collapse. Actually The climax is the best part. It is here where the humour is at its best (although that still doesn't say enough) and then in the last five minutes, things get sour again, in the form of a piece of s**t ending which is arguably the most idiotic part, and is totally unsatisfactory.
Director Luke Greenfield is so desperate to shock and surprise his audience over the course of ninety plus minutes, that he seems to have forgotten the most important ingredients of the film. The Girl Next Door is bone dry of charm and intelligence, and it's sense of humour is inconsistent and also insufficent. I'll have to say skip this film.