Not good but not bad

Rating: 5/10 (26 August 2004)

The Girl Next Door is more than what it had been advertised. Fox chose to market it as a sex comedy, but indeed this film is way more than that. It follows in the footsteps of Risky Business and American Pie and does something that few sex comedies do anymore; give depth to the story. But that doesn't mean that the story is any good. In fact, it is so unrealistic and so overwritten that the film itself starts to get boring. The first half-hour is the most interesting because you care about the characters. However, when they drag in scenes like the one in Las Vegas or the robbery scene, then the story just dwindles so far down into a bottomless pit of nothingness. The screenplay does have some clever nuances like the creation of a new and totally original sex-ed video which would send shockwaves around the country if such a tape were ever released. But at the heart of the story is the relationship between Matthew and Danielle (played well by Emile Hirsch and Elisha Cuthbert) which is the most thoughtful thing about this film. But the story drags away from that and slips away from being more decent than it could have been. However, the film is better already in the fact that it is not just a flat sex comedy because then the film would not have any depth whatsoever. So I give credit to the writer and the director for making that happen. However, I guess I have to say that such depth is not enough to make this film good.
Lenny's Grade: C+