‘The Girl Next Door’ a risqu? fantasy for adolescents

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In theaters

THE GIRL NEXT DOOR, directed by Luke Greenfield, written by Stuart Blumberg, David Wagner and Brent Goldberg, 97 minutes, rated R.

Once upon a time in Hollywood, the girl next door was a beacon of domestic purity. Sure, she was sexually chaste and not nearly as hot as the trampy bad girl down the street. But she wore her values like a badge and she had a fresh, virginal charm that was as crisp as her pleated skirts. She may have had competition, but in the end, she always got her man.

Now, in these looser, post-feminist times, it’s safe to say that the girl next door isn’t exactly who she used to be.

In the new comedy “The Girl Next Door,” she’s become Danielle (Elisha Cuthbert), a good-natured porn queen eager to quit the biz. For the women’s movement – or for what’s left of the women’s movement – I’m not sure this would be considered progress, but that’s up for debate.

Danielle’s ticket out of the satin sack rests in high school senior Matt (Emile Hirsch), a bright yet unpopular kid who must go through his share of growing pains before he can come to terms with his own unusual fate: The first love of his life happens to be an adult cinema superstar who’s no stranger to, oh, say, several dozen strangers. And how do you explain that to mother?

As directed by Luke Greenfield from a script by Stuart Blumberg, David Wagner and Brent Goldberg, “The Girl Next Door” is a coming-of-age movie that borrows liberally from one of the most influential films of the genre – “Risky Business.”

While that movie looks comparatively tame in the 21 years that have passed since its release, “Girl” is rated R for good reason. It does indeed plunge into the porn business – with all that implies – and as such, it isn’t exactly suited for teens, in spite of the fact that it’s being marketed to them.

The cast is better than the plot, which involves Matt falling hard for Danielle and then, with the help of his two friends, Eli (Chris Marquette) and Klitz (Paul Dano), getting involved with her pimp (Timothy Olyphant) as he tries to lure Danielle back into the business. What follows is a predictable, straight shot to the end, with Greenfield somehow managing to strike a tone that’s almost sweet before he turns the whole thing sour with a handful of final, implausible twists.

No matter. “The Girl Next Door” is a well-acted, adolescent fantasy for bookish boys who, like their jock counterparts, also must contend with their hormones. This is their outlet and it’s reasonably satisfying. Let the boy next door dream.

Grade: C+

On video and DVD

BEYOND BORDERS, directed by Martin Campbell, written by Caspian Tredwell-Owen, 127 minutes, rated R.

Politically charged and awash in melodrama, the heroically well-intentioned yet wholly misguided “Beyond Borders” is a manipulative travelogue of heartbreak and despair.

It moves glumly yet grandly about the globe, touching down just long enough in such hot spots as Ethiopia, Cambodia and Chechnya to shame audiences into feeling guilt about their comparatively comfortable lives.

While it’s hard at work at that – images of starvation, amputation, genocide and war linger interminably onscreen – the film also tosses in a little sex and a little skin to allegedly make all of this go down easier.

It doesn’t. Quite the contrary.

This shallow, uneven message movie uses a very real backdrop of human devastation to bolster its intercontinental romance. It wants you to realize how lucky you are, but it also wants to make you breathe hard while doing so. As a result, conflict is achieved, but so is a new brand of gross exploitation.

In the movie, Angelina Jolie, in full pucker, is Sarah Jordan, a wealthy American socialite living in London who stumbles upon her social conscience at a party in 1984. There, at a black- tie fund-raiser, her life is forever changed when renegade Dr. Nick Callahan (Clive Owen) crashes the event with the press and an emaciated Ethiopian boy named Jojo in tow.

Speeches are made, social injustices are highlighted, Jojo is handed a banana and asked to behave like a monkey, which he does (no kidding). Suddenly, Sarah is hooked. Nick reeks of the sort of smoldering masculinity her soft husband, Henry (Linus Roache), sorely lacks.

Over the ensuing years, Sarah recklessly drops everything – her marriage, her kids – to follow Nick around the world, first to aid camps in Africa and Cambodia, where they have blistering, smoky trysts, and then in Chechnya, where she looks smashing in black mink. A wealth of plot inconsistencies ensue, but they are nothing when stacked next to the film’s true flaw: Who cares whether these two difficult, righteous people get together when all around them is such suffering?

Unable to make us care, “Beyond Borders” splits.

Grade: D

Christopher Smith is the Bangor Daily News film critic. His reviews appear Mondays and Fridays in Style, 5:30 p.m. Thursdays on WLBZ 2 and WCSH 6, and are archived at RottenTomatoes.com. He can be reached at BDNFilm1@aol.com.

The Video-DVD Corner

Renting a video or a DVD? NEWS film critic Christopher Smith can help. Below are his grades of recent releases in video stores. Those in bold print are new to video stores this week.

American Splendor ? A-

Anything Else ? B+

Bad Boys II ? C-

Beyond Borders ? D

Brother Bear ? B

Cheaper by the Dozen ? B-

Cold Creek Manor ? D

Dirty Pretty Things ? A-

Dr. Seuss’ The Cat in the Hat ? D-

Freaky Friday ? A-

Good Boy! ? C+

Gothika ? D

House of Sand and Fog ? B+

Intolerable Cruelty ? B-

Kill Bill Vol. 1 ? A

Le Divorce ? C-

Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers ? A-

Lost in Translation ? A

Looney Tunes: Back in Action ? B-

The Magdalene Sisters ? A-

Matchstick Men ? A-

The Matrix Reloaded ? A-

The Matrix Revolutions ? B-

The Missing ? B+

Mona Lisa Smile ? B-

Open Range ? B+

Pieces of April ? B

Pirates of the Caribbean ? A-

Radio ? C

The Rundown ? B

Runaway Jury ? B

School of Rock ? B+

Shattered Glass ? B+

Something’s Gotta Give ? A-

Swimming Pool ? B+

Sylvia ? B-

Texas Chainsaw Massacre ? D

Thirteen ? B+

21 Grams ? A

Under the Tuscan Sun ? B+

Veronica Guerin ? B