Get Over it
If you see one Kirsten Dunst teen flick, make it the hauntingThe Virgin Suicides(1999) or the charming cheerleading comedyBring It On(2000) before you reach for this film, Tommy O'Haver's shambling follow-up toBilly's Hollywood Screen Kiss(withWill and Grace's Sean Hayes as Billy). Despite Dunst's appealing performance as aspiring songwriter Kelly, this romantic comedy is rarely very romantic or comic. Ben Foster, so compelling in Barry Levinson's semiautobiographicalLiberty Heights(1999), is quite the wet blanket as clumsy basketball player Berke (Berke?). Granted, his long-time girlfriend, Allison (Melissa Sagemiller), dumps him during the opening credits to the tune of "Love Will Keep Us Together" (a highlight), but it's still hard to see what Kelly would find so attractive about such a sleepy-eyed sad sack. Superior teen comediesCluelessandAmerican Piewould seem to have influenced the candy-colored sets, gross-out humor, and topless babes, but the magic is mostly missing. Andmagicis the key word as the plot mostly revolves around a musical adaptation (directed by Martin Short's flamboyant drama teacher) ofA Midsummer Night's Dreamin which Kelly, Berke, Allison, her new boyfriend Striker (Shane West as a vapid pop star), and Dennis (real-life pop star Sisqó) perform. Life imitates art at the end as Berke'sDream-inspired fantasies become reality... but the story would have been more interesting if told from Kelly's point of view. With Colin Hanks as Kelly's overprotective brother and Swoosie Kurtz and Ed Begley Jr. as Berke's permissive parents.--Kathleen C. Fennessy