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Risky Neighbors
The Girl Next Door is a rip-off, but it's a good rip-off.

Starring: Matthew Kidman, Matthew Kidman, Timothy Olyphant, James Remar, Chris Marquette, Paul Dano, Timothy Bottoms, Donna Bullock
Director: Luke Greenfield

Reviewed by Kevin Cunningham

THE PITCH: A high school nerd with no nerve to do anything wild becomes infatuated with his new beautiful neighbor, a former porn star trying to get away from her old life. IN OTHER WORDS: Risky Business meets Notting Hill in teenage America.

There's two kinds of people in the world. That's really the point of The Girl Next Door. There's those who take risks, and those who don't. There's those who are and feel cool, and those who don't. And then, there's those who've seen Risky Business, and those who haven't.

The main story of The Girl Next Door is really about the young man in question growing up. Sure, the girl is the focus of all the advertising, but the story is the boy's, without a doubt. The girl is just what motivates him, and if that is what made a film a rip-off, well, then there hasn't been an original story in our lifetimes. Once you get past that fact, you'll enjoy this film a lot more.

The best part of this film is the likeability of the young stars. Elisha Cuthbert finally shows some real charm and talent after being saddled with the most annoying role in recent TV history on 24. She pulls off one of the more difficult roles around, in being a dream girl. In too many movies, that role is botched by the girl in question showing some unlikable qualities, and Cushbert shows none here.

She's offset by the young Emile Hirsch, who plays the young boy in question with all the appropriate hesitations and longings of Tom Cruise's breakout role 20 years ago. They both, however, get upstaged by Timothy Olyphant who plays the dream girl's Producer. He is at once both cool and slimy, the kind of guy that is fun to be around but never someone you trust.

Risky Business is ever-present in this film, and it's truly hard to watch it and not think about it constantly. This is, of course, one of the trends in Hollywood right now, with Jennifer Garner's 13 Going On 30 evoking the Tom Hanks classic Big. To compare the two can do a bit of a disservice to The Girl Next Door, though. While the comparisons are easy to make, from premise to even the fleeting soundtrack with drawn out moments of reflection and tension, The Girl Next Door is a surprisingly charming film on it's own.

That charm can get you past a script with a few weaknesses. The script is quick at times, and a bit contrived, and it certainly shares some moments that evoke that Risky film from 20 years ago. However, despite some slight predictability, it has enough twists to keep you off balance, particularly the penultimate scene. The end result remains one of those films that recalls teenage days with a little bit of nostalgia and a little bit of modern nuance, and a film that leaves you feeling good on the way out the door.

In today's Hollywood, that's a preciously valuable and rare thing.

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