Pretty good teen movie

Rating: 7/10 (11 September 2010)

The Girl Next Door is a pretty entertaining movie. It has many scenes that are hard not to watch and that make you interested in the unravelling of the film. Though it also got plenty of flaws - almost every single scene of the second half of the film seems to act as the climax, and then the movie keeps going - but it's also got one of the most appealing casts I've seen in a while. Emile Hirsh is the central character Matthew Kidman, about to graduate from high school. The girl next door is Elisha Cuthbert is the title character, Danielle. Her character acts very differently from the beginning to the end of the film. She changes quite drastically in personality and its quite good yet odd in a way. Also it was quite strange how at first from meeting Matthew the way she acts with him. It seemed like she was just using him, but as we see throughout the film she does end up liking him. Matthew's two friends and one of Danielle's associates played by Tim Olyphant are particular standouts in terms of comic relief; the movie is genuinely funny though also contains a few dramatic scenes (many involving Matthew & Kelly, and Matthew & Danielle- a strip club scene).
Also I found many of the characters to be quite annoying, specifically Matthew's two friends- Eli and Klitz, and Kelly (he was very crude and weird). I feel the writers made his character too over-the-top. There are also some weird and quite odd scenes (Matthew's speech, limo scene) but overall the film is pretty entertaining as a whole.