As insightful as teen romances come, 100 Girls is an examination of one guy’s search for the perfect girl.
Matthew (Jonathan Tucker) is a sarcastic, hormone-driven college student who works as a fix-it man on campus. While departing the girls’ dormitory after a repair, Matthew ends up trapped in a pitch-black elevator where he makes love to the perfect woman – without ever seeing her face.
After that fated night, Matthew makes it his goal to discover who this mystery girl is by creating outrageous problems in the dorm to cause his own deployment to fix them. Along the way, he meets various colourful and interesting specimens of femininity. There’s Patty, the promiscuous artsy girl (Emmanuelle Chriqui), Arlene, the competitive tomboy (Katherine Heigl), Wendy, the girl next door (Larisa Oleynik), Cynthia, the goddess (Jaime Pressly), Dora, the smart girl (Marissa Ribisi), Ms. Stern, the feminist teacher Aimee Graham), and many more.
Each of the girls has her own frailties and promises, but ultimately only one of them could be the girl of his dreams. With the support of his misguided friend, Rod (James De Bello), Matthew turns the dorm upside down in his quest, only to fall on heartbreak after heartbreak.
100 Girls isn’t as shallow as it might seem, despite starting out that way. There are moments when you feel as if you’re watching a staid teen romantic comedy where the gangly boy meets the beautiful girl and ends up happily ever after. And to an extent, that’s exactly what happens. However, the fun is in how it comes about.
Matthew’s search yields many possibilities, each with its own flaws. Patty is scared of facing her inner emotions, Arlene feels she has nothing to offer but cynicism, Wendy can’t figure out who she really is, Cynthia feels forced into a dangerous mould and Dora can’t face her inner beauty.
Writer-director Michael Davis starts off each of these characters as a stereotype and then adds quirks to make it well rounded. Even misogynistic Rod has his personality-defining foibles. While the actual physical presentation of the film, from camera work to directing is flawed, the characterizations are outstanding. One of the few problems in this regard is with Matthew – the lead character – who turns out to be as two-dimensional as his personality. The other problem is that when the end comes, you get pretty much exactly what you’d expect – there are few, if any surprises.
Younger audiences will adore this film, perhaps even making it a cult favourite alongside The Breakfast Club and Empire Records. But like the latter, 100 Girls is entertaining, but will never surmount its Brat Pack heritage.
