I admit that I wasn’t particularly generous to the 2002 campus hinjinx comedy Van Wilder. While I did suggest that it had likeable aspects and was a cut above other gross-out comedies, I still didn’t recommend the film. So, when I learned that The Girl Next Door was written by the Van Wilder screenwriting duo of David Wagner and Brent Goldberg, teamed with Stuart Blumberg (writer of 2000’s witty Keeping the Faith), I was pleasantly surprised. Because, while Van Wilder had its inspired moments among all the semen and general immaturity, The Girl Next Door is a far more consistently smart, dark, sexy comedy that manages to deliver a classic high school guy fantasy while also providing plenty of right-on-the-mark observations on modern sexuality and those painful coming of age years.
The fantasy is a doozie (for young heterosexual males, anyway) – imagine that you come home from school one day to find the most beautiful young woman you’ve ever seen moving in next door. With her bedroom window right opposite yours. And she doesn’t have a boyfriend. And she’s taking a real liking to you. And she’s an ex-porn star. Oh. Perhaps that last one is a mixed blessing. At least, it is for Matthew (Emile Hirsch), a bright goodie-two-shoes high school senior who is class president, set to head off to a top-notch university, but not terribly successful with the girls. Matthew is by no means a loser, but he’s also not a ladies man, instead hanging around with nerdy Eli (Chris Marquette) and Klitz (Paul Dano) while gazing longingly at the popular girls and only imagining such irresponsibility as skipping class to go to the beach.
When Danielle (Elisha Cuthbert) arrives on the scene, Matthew's life changes dramatically. He was already juggling the pressure of school work, a major fundraising campaign and an upcoming big speech in an effort to win a scholarship. And now he’s got a gorgeous retired porn star on his elbow as well. A wild ‘try something crazy’ young woman who appears to be falling for him. And with a jealous porn producer (Timothy Olyphant is excellent as the seedy, charming, but dangerous Kelly) close on her trail.
There is all sorts of grist for the comedic mill here, and I’m happy to report that the writers and director Luke Greenfield (I guess we can now forgive him for The Animal, the widely-panned although financially successful Rob Schneider comedy) have taken this premise to some interesting places. First, this is not a gross-out comedy. That’s a big relief. And second, it’s really funny, really sexy, and surprisingly dark, accomplishing all this while delivering a far more accurate and nuanced picture of high school life than we usually get from Hollywood. Sure, the stereotypes are there (as in the real world), but this isn’t a comedy of stereotypes. It’s a comedy of morals and human relations, and it’s a surprisingly touching love story as well.
Hirsch and Cuthbert deserve credit for playing their characters straight and reasonably subtly. Both are likeable and both manage to do relatively outrageous things without losing their characters’ sense of reality. The comedy is often indirect and in the form of social commentary (for example, a scene in which Matthew chats uncomfortably with a friend of his parents about his upcoming speech on the topic of ‘moral fibre’ takes place while the two are the semi-willing beneficiaries of lap dances at a strip club).
The Girl Next Door is a pleasant surprise, funny and sweet, yet far more sexy and daring than your average high school or college gross-out comedy.
