Perfect, In Its Way

Rating: 9/10 (22 March 2004)

Don't believe the naysayers. The Girl Next Door is a very good teen sex comedy/coming of age movie. It doesn't exactly transcend this, but so what--it isn't trying to.
I guess the closest movie comparison I can make to this is Risky Business, but--though I haven't seen that movie in years--I felt like there was a much stronger emotional core to this movie than Tom Cruise's first big break.
Emile Hirsch, as Matt, and Elisha Cuthbert, as Danielle, are both appealing leads in this film, both visually and emotionally. They come across as likable and real, not cardboard cutouts of the "bad girl" or the "overachiever" that we're used to seeing in movies of this sort. Those moments exist, but they're there for comedy as much as anything else. What really surprised me was that I could actually imagine these two people falling for each other ... though, I suppose I should say the surprise was more that I could see why Danielle might fall for Matt. As played here, he's a genuinely good guy who doesn't know amazing he really is. There's a quiet scene where he's explaining to Danielle how "we" raised money to bring a brilliant Cambodian student to study in America. She asks, "Who's we?", and when Matt answers that it was basically him, there's a shrug and a kind of sense that he sees it as no big deal--wouldn't anyone have raised the money to help? It's subtle and beautifully done.
The rest of the cast shines as well; there are no weak links. Tim Olyphant, as Danielle's producer, is at turns both cool and sleazy as hell, and both fit his character like a rhinestone glove. He has some hilarious moments here, and takes full advantage of them. Paul Dano, as Klitz, is probably given the least to do, but he plays the reluctant, geeky friend extremely well, and the scene where he finally cuts loose is priceless. James Remar does a good job of looking and acting like Hugh Hefner as he plays Tim Olyphant's old partner. And finally, Chris Marquette's Eli is a work of genius. He's The Girl Next Door's Jack Black, Jason Lee and Vince Vaughan (think Trent from Swingers) rolled into one and then reverse-aged to a high school student so that his presence doesn't seem completely out of place. His lines are some of the funniest and most outrageous in the movie, and he delivers them with spot-on accuracy.
Please don't dismiss this movie as simply another teen sex comedy. It's at least as funny as the American Pie movies (without having to resort to gross out humor as the linchpin of the movie), and it has ten times the heart and soul.