Ever the fan of coming-of-age movies, I figured “The Girl Next Door” would be the ultimate fantasy fest of the genre. All the trailers I saw before the film opened gave showed promise, what with Elisha Cuthbert starring as a porn star who happens to be house-sitting next door to the local high school nerd. The trailers, for the most part, gave away a little too much of the plot: Boy meets Girl, Boy falls in love with Girl, Boy finds out the Girl is a porn star, Boy imagines Girl is all sorts of sexual escapades with his parents, etc… You know, basically the same thing we all went through as high schoolers. Even though the storyline was one that most of us lived through, I was still looking forward to seeing a more modern take. Certainly it didn’t hurt that the film starred Elisha Cuthbert, after all she is breathtaking to look at, even if her acting skills aren’t all that. I’ve seen her on “24”, and am very happy to hear she won’t be returning for the 4th season. (Of course, it seems that MOST of the cast won’t be returning….)

Just to give you a little more detail, the movie also stars Emile Hirsch as Matthew (the Boy), a young man with quite the future laid out for him (of course he has no idea how ‘laid’ out it’s going to get…). He is the student council president, readying himself to go to college so he can get into politics. His vision gets a bit foggy, however when bombshell Danielle (the Girl) temporarily moves in next door. He gets caught watching her undress through his window and then the fun begins. It’s not until much, much later that he discovers his newfound friend’s… occupation. After that his life becomes ever more complicated as he does all the wrong things and gets mixed up with porn directors, all while trying to prepare himself for the big speech to win that ever elusive scholarship. (I know… we’ve all been there.)

I imagined “The Girl Next Door” would be this highly sexual comedic romp, and it turned out to be a bit more. It was actually a sexual comedic romp WITH a good story. It was funny, with a little bit of humor that would be offensive to some, and even had a little bit of a moral center (emphasis on ‘a little bit’). As for the overall plot, it would have almost been unbelievable if it hadn’t mirrored my own high school years (and yours too, I’ll bet). Yes, there’s nudity, though not as much as you might think. But none of the nudity involves dear Ms. Cuthbert. (I’m aware that is the burning question on most of your little minds). The packaging of the Unrated version gives the impression that you might catch a glimpse of her attributes, but there are none to be found. (If it’s any consolation, she does prove to be a much better actress than she seems on TV.)

There are going to be two different versions of the DVD available, one is the Theatrical version, the other is an Unrated version. I can’t really tell you what the difference will be, but I understand that what nudity and raunchy comedy there was in the Theatrical version is amped up a bit in the Unrated version. But still, don’t expect a whole lot.

What you will find in the Unrated version is a ton of extra features, more than I would have expected on this disc. As opposed to making it a 2-disc set, Fox decided to release it as a single disc with two sides. Most of the special features can be found on side 2. On side 1 however, there is a commentary track by director Luke Greenfield as well as a Trivia Track. The commentary isn’t too bad, but Greenfield does tend to drone on a bit so it failed to keep my interest all the way through. Much more entertaining was the ‘popup’ video trivia track, which delivered all sorts of information on the movie, the actors, etc…

Side 2 has some unusual extra features to be sure. As we run down the list, you’ll find a collection of scenes from the film that include commentaries by Hirsch and Cuthbert. These were fairly interesting, but nothing to write home about. There are also some additional deleted scenes, but again nothing here really worth looking at. Of the features that are worth checking out, there is a short gag reel with some fairly funny moments, and perhaps the most unusual of all, “The Eli Experience.” Eli is Matthews friend in the film, and in this short featurette, we follow the actor as he visits a porn convention and pretends to be a director. One of the other actors from the movie, Matt Weise (who is also a professional WWE wrestler) plays apart in this video by walking around and asking guys if they want to sleep with him. Then there are scenes where ‘Eli’ auditions visitors to the convention to star in a porn film. I won’t give away what happens here, but there are some moments of highly uncomfortable comedy.

“The Girl Next Door” is a much better comedy than I thought it would be. Hirsch and Cuthbert are really good together and make for a believable relationship. Just be prepared that the film does get a bit raunchy at times. You’ll have to use your own judgment as to whether or not it will offend you. I wish the extra features had been a little more comprehensive, but aside from this, the DVD is certainly worth a look.

Directed by: Luke Greenfield
Starring: Elisha Cuthbert, Emile Hirsch, Timothy Olyphant,
Extras: Commentary by Director Luke Greenfield, Trivia Track, 16 Uncensored Deleted/Extended Scenes, Gag Reel, “A Look Next Door”, “The Eli Experience”, Photo Gallery
Specifications: Widescreen, Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound
Studio: 20th Century Fox
Release Date: 8/24/2004
Region 1
MPAA Rating: Unrated (an R-Rated Version is also vailable)
Website

We'll give The Girl Next Door: Unrated Version a B.