A completely unconvincing lead character

Rating: 4/10 (16 April 2004)

The Girl Next Door has some potential at the onset, but that quickly faded after the first 30 minutes or so. It basically degenerates into a mess by the end with completely unconvincing character decisions. My main argument is that Matthew Kidman (Emile Hirsch) makes such stupid decisions throughout the movie that I found myself not caring anymore about him or about what he was trying to do.
SPOILERS
First of all, his decision to take Danielle (Elisha Cuthbert) to a cheap motel, get her drunk and then have sex with her just because he found out she used to be a porn star completely goes against what his character is supposed to be about. I thought he cared about this girl? I thought he was falling in love with her?
Secondly, the way he just goes along with Kelly (Timothy Olyphant) when he drags him out of school is simply ridiculous. Matthew knew this guy was dangerous, so why just get in the car and go who-knows-where with him? He had the protection of being in school. He could have used that to his advantage. Back when I was in high school, it wasn't that easy for a student to get abducted right from the middle of a class, for heaven's sake! What kind of teacher just allows some disheveled older male to snatch a kid right from his desk??
Thirdly, after Kelly punches Matthew in the car, he gives him some pills for the "swelling" that he just caused him. Give me a break. What idiot just takes some white pill given to him by some unstable moron? He could have given him rat poison for goodness sake. He should consider himself lucky that is was only Ecstasy. This guy is supposed to be the school president that is up for a prestigious scholarship. I figured this meant he had some brains in his head. I guess not.
There are other scenes in this movie that demonstrate complete stupidity as well, like the second scene in the bank where Matthew finds out that all the money has been withdrawn illegally by Kelly. What kind of bank makes a mistake like that? I wouldn't want to keep my money there! Also, there is much more due process that would have taken effect in the bank as soon as this HUGE error was discovered.
On the good side, the film starts out promising (as I said earlier) and the chemistry between Matthew and Danielle worked well. That should have been explored a whole lot more. Elisha Cuthbert looked stunning and has real screen presence. Let's hope her next movie has more believable characters around her and a better script.