'Girl Next Door' is an engaging teen comedy

By Randy Cordova
The Arizona Republic

THE GIRL NEXT DOOR (R) Two and One-Half Stars (Fair-to-Good) Emile Hirsch stars as an overachieving high school senior whose life takes an unexpected turn when a willowy porn star (Elisha Cuthbert) moves in next door. As a throwback to the anything-goes days of '80s sex comedies, this is pretty engaging stuff. Directed by Luke Greenfield, 20th Century Fox, 110 minutes.

She's also the perfect prom date and the ideal way to shed that nagging virginity, not to mention providing an escape from gloomy teen geekdom.

A winningly offbeat comedy, "The Girl Next Door" looks like your typical teen sex flick — and in a way, it is — but its subversive rhythms and horny schoolboys recall such '80s drive-in fables as "The Last American Virgin" and "Mischief."

The hero of the piece is Matthew, played by Emile Hirsch ("The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys"), an overachieving high school senior with White House dreams and a John F. Kennedy poster on his wall. He's a straight arrow who has never strayed from the proper path.

Into his life comes Danielle (Elisha Cuthbert of TV's "24"), who is house-sitting for an aunt who lives next door. She's drawn to his warmth; he's attracted to her spontaneity and willowy curves. She's also coy about her past. No wonder; it turns out she stars in porn films under the name "Athena," something discovered by one of Matthew's oversexed pals.

Pretty soon, Danielle takes off for a Vegas adult film convention with porn moviemaker Kelly (Timothy Olyphant of "Deadwood"), while Matthew and his nerdy friends follow in pursuit. The whole thing is cheerfully engaging, thanks to some inspired direction by Luke Greenfield ("The Animal"). He shows a good hand with his young actors, drawing nice work from Hirsch and Cuthbert.

The film has some nifty touches, including a few wacky fantasy sequences and a refreshingly nonjudgmental approach to the world of porn. There's also several sly comic bits, including a funny running gag on a Cambodian teen that do-gooder Matthew has sponsored to bring to America. That's not to say the movie is a masterpiece: There is about one finale too many, and a couple of violent scenes are disturbingly out of place. But as a throwback to the anything-goes days of '80s sex comedies, this is pretty engaging stuff.

Strangely enough for a movie about porn, leading lady Cuthbert never appears nude. Guess things aren't as anything-goes as they used to be.

Rated R for language, sex and drug use.