The Girl Next Door
for strong sexual content, language and some drug/alcohol use.
Reviewed by: Joe Sinko
CONTRIBUTOR
| Moral Rating: | Extremely Offensive |
| Moviemaking Quality: |
|
| Primary Audience: | Adults |
| Genre: | Comedy Romance |
| Length: | 1 hr. 49 min. |
| Year of Release: | 2004 |
| USA Release: |
April 9, 2004 |
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| Featuring |
Elisha Cuthbert Emile Hirsch Timothy Olyphant James Remar Paul Franklin Dano Chris Marquette Timothy Bottoms |
| Director |
Luke Greenfield |
| Producer | Charles Gordon, Harry Gittes, Marc Sternberg |
| Distributor |
“Matt never saw her coming… but all his friends had!”
Plot Outline: A teenager’s dreams come true when a former porn star moves in next door and they fall in love.
This movie is a takeoff on the Tom Cruise movie “Risky Business.” The story line is about a young women (Danielle) who is attempting to get out of the pornographic movie business and “regain her innocence.”
Danielle temporarily moves next door to Matthew (Emile Hirsch) to house-sit for her aunt. Of course, she is very beautiful and captures Matthew’s attention right away. Matthew is a smart, ambitious young man who is trying to go to Georgetown University after graduating High School. His goal is to one day become the President. He is also helping to raise $25,000 to bring a “brilliant young man” called “Samnang” from a poor country to live and go to school in the United States. However, the idea is that Matthew’s life is a little too “flat,” and needs to be spiced up. The story surrounds him and the innocent relationship he initially develops with Danielle.
One of Matthew’s friends, however, is very perverted and discovers that Danielle is actually a porn star. This “friend” encourages Matthew to capitalize on the situation and take her to a hotel, because he is sure that she will be easy to get sex from, and that’s what he himself would do.
This friend of Matthew’s is very obnoxious and perverse—constantly using the f-word. Never once were his parents shown during the movie, and he spends all of his spare time watching and thinking about pornography. It is very disturbing.
As the story develops, Danielle gets very upset in the hotel room and decides that there is no point in trying to change—she is going back to the porn business. This leads to a very nasty encounter with her “producer” who steals all of the money that Matthew has been saving to bring Samnang to the U.S. Predictably, and just like the plot in “Risky Business,” Matthew has to find a way to recover the $25,000. And, of course, the means is through making a porn movie featuring his high school friends and porn stars.
“The Girl Next Door” is designed to appeal to the lasciviousness that is running rampant in our culture. It is predictable, awkward, full of profanity and nudity. It pokes fun at the use of ecstasy and portrays the majority of high school kids as morally bankrupt. It falls way short of the movie trailers, except the ones used to imply that it is “every boy’s fantasy to live next to a young beautiful porn star who will fulfill their sexual desires.”
This is a porn movie, make no mistake. It should have been rated “NC-17.” There are many elements that I found filthy and offensive. The movie pokes fun at “normal” kids who are doing their best to get a good education and become contributing citizens in society. It implies that casual sex and pornography are generally harmless things that really hurt no one, and that using drugs will make you funny and enlightened.
The Bible warns Christians to set their minds on things above, not on the things of this Earth (Col 3:2), and that “marriage is honorable among all, and the bed undefiled; but fornicators and adulterers God will judge” (Hebrews 13:4). Over and again, the New Testament tells us to flee those things that would defile our minds and spirits. This movie fits very well into that category.
Violence: Moderate / Profanity: Extreme / Sex/Nudity: Extreme
[Average/3]
On another note, seeing this overwhelmed me with conviction for the times I had given in to temptation to see pornography—without ever realizing how terrible, destructive and dehumanizing this is. “Danielle” is a person—as the women who do this for real. Don’t take your kids to this, but older adults may enjoy it. Get them a Bible study on the book of Hosea in the Old Testament instead.
[Average/3½]
She finds an innocence in Matthew (Hirsch) and it makes her feel better not to be degraded. A side message is to enjoy life. Matthew is so caught up in achieving academically he has failed to find the balance of having a normal social life. It’s good to see him break out of his shell when he meets and gets to know Danielle. While I appreciated those messages of the movie, families will not want to sort through the sexual content to reach the end. The central character being an ex-porn star opens doors for heavy sexual content.
Sex for play is a major downside to the film. Love does not seem to be a factor for the most part and when it is, it is outside of wedlock. “R” rated profanity is also ever present. In the end, the events of the movie do not play out as they would in real life. People who find themselves in situations similar to Matthew’s don’t escape the problems as easily as he does, and are definitely not glorified for them in the end.
“The Girl Next Door” will open up some discussion, but is NOT appropriate viewing for families with children of any age.
[Extremely Offensive/3½]
[Very Offensive/3]
[Very Offensive/3]
Reviewer’s response: I read Bob’s opinion (above), and I’m glad, if that’s what he got out of it. However, I disagree with Bob for some of the following reasons:
- Porn was overwhelmingly treated with a funny and cavalier attitude throughout the movie.
- Porn was far more glamorized than demonized. The movie didn’t really show the seamier aspects of those who are in “the industry” and the tragic effects it has on the people who make and watch the movies. The movie never gave an accurate portrayal of how porn destroys the lives of those who work in it, and those who view it.
- The young man who was “addicted” to porn spent nearly all of his free time watching porn videos in his bedroom. We know what that would really do to the mind of any person, as well as how they tend to think that females are mainly to be used as men’s sexual objects. Yet, this young man given almost hero-like status in the show. The audience seemed to laugh at almost everything he said and did.
- There were no serious moments of discussion in the film about the personal devastation that comes to those in porn, or those who use porn. Even though the character did want out, and to improve her life, she went back to it rather unhesitatingly when she was disappointed. There was not one moment for some serious reflection on reality, or to have your heart moved by the pain these people go through.
- Seeing a movie that uses a very weak, and very disguised moral message about “the evils of porn,” can never be a substitute for sound Biblical counseling. People who are addicted to porn are not going to wean themselves off of it by going to a titillating movie, and getting fed the mental imagery for over 90 minutes. It’s kind of like an alcoholic going to a bar to swish a little beer around in their mouth while watching other people drinking, and then saying “man, I learned once again why I shouldn’t be drinking beer!” 1 Cor. 10:13 is a great Scriptural truth about escaping temptation. And in 1 Cor. 15:33 says “Evil company corrupts good habits.” It seems to me that the best way to stay free from that which once had you in chains is to not play around with it anymore. There are far better ways to get a therapeutic look at what porn really does to people, like seeing the videos that Focus On The Family produced about Ted Bundy.
[Very Offensive/1½]
[Extremely Offensive/4]
[1½]
[Extremely Offensive/3]
[Very Offensive/3½]
[Better than Average/4]
…I disagree that this movie promotes pornography—it shows the devastating effects of pornography upon the lives of its participants. Danielle wants OUT of the porn industry. No viewer would want to become like the porn producer with phallic artwork throughout his house. He is portrayed as pathetic and unlikeable. The porn guys are the bad guys.
…That was a plot point that the reviewer …missed—while at first the audience is led to believe that the are making a porn video, they are actually making a sex-ed video that students will actually watch and learn from.
There is a nobility about Matthew’s love for Danielle that is precious. He does not get excited about her involvement in porn—he is terribly upset by it. But he loves her anyway. He must sacrifice his ideal image of an innocent, beautiful, pure woman because he loves a real woman. He can’t have his fantasy girl—he gets the girl he loves.
If there are problems with this film, they include the three or four endings, which make it longer than it should have been.
As for the character of the porn-addicted friend—just like Vince Vaughn’s character in OLD SCHOOL, it turns out that he’s all talk. When it actually comes to doing what he’s told everyone else to do, he can’t. He is an endearing, John Cusack-esque character who is a little on the pathetic side, but a genuine friend to Matthew.
Negative elements of the film: the length, some of the nudity. (The sex scene between Matthew and Danielle, however, is very tastefully done.)
Postive elements: Emile Hirsch’s performance, an excellent soundtrack, sacrificial love, responsibility, condemnation of the porn industry. That, and it’s a great love story.
My Ratings: [Very Offensive/4]