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The Girl Next Door (2004 film)

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For other uses, see Girl Next Door (disambiguation).
The Girl Next Door
Directed byLuke Greenfield
Written byDavid T. Wagner
Brent Goldberg (story and screenplay)
Stuart Blumberg(screenplay)
Produced byCharles Gordon
Harry Gittes
Marc Sternberg
StarringEmile Hirsch
Elisha Cuthbert
Timothy Olyphant
James Remar
Chris Marquette
Paul Dano
Music byPaul Haslinger
Distributed by20th Century Fox
Release dates
April 9, 2004
Running time
109 mins
CountryU.S. U.S.
LanguageEnglish

The Girl Next Door is a 2004 teen film starring Emile Hirsch and Elisha Cuthbert.

Plot

Ambitious Westport High School senior, Matthew Kidman (Hirsch), dreams of a career in politics. He plans to attend Georgetown University if he can get a big upcoming scholarship. He is distracted by his new 19 year old neighbor, Danielle, and they begin to have a relationship. He soon discovers by his porn-addicted friend, Eli (Chris Marquette), who shows him a video, proving that Danielle is actually a porn star, though she shelters resentment and disdain for what she does.

Previously, his Student Council organization raised $25,000 to bring a Cambodian boy, Samnang, a genius that taught himself Calculus without any textbooks, to the US to study at Westport High.

Following poor advice from his friend Eli, Matthew goes on a date with Danielle and takes her to a cheap motel room, before they set off Matthew has a daydream in which he sees Cuthbert's character performing fellatio on his father and having a lesbian fling with his mom, he cries out, stunning his family who have been looking over photos. Matthew and Danielle go out and soon arrive at a sleazy motel. Watching his behavior, Danielle guesses that Matthew had seen her on tape, and concludes that all he wants to do is "fuck a porn star in a cheap motel room", so she punishes him by offering him the chance to have sex with her, knowing he will wimpout. She berates Matthew saying "She loved the way he looked at her" then storms out. Later Matthew finds out she is leaving for Las Vegas.

Matthew and his friends follow Danielle to Las Vegas and find her performing at an adult movie convention. Once there, they discover that her old porn director/producer boss Kelly (Timothy Olyphant) is unwilling to let her go without trouble. When Matthew convinces Danielle not to rejoin the industry, Kelly only cares that he has lost his best actress and $30,000 in business. Kelly leads him into Hugo's (his rival producer's) house, and reports Matthew for robbery after he convinces him to break in and steal an award. After Matthew manages to escape the house and the police, Eli picks him up and takes him to the awards dinner, where he has to give a speech to win the scholarship. High on ecstasy he unknowingly took from Kelly, he blows the speech and loses the scholarship. Kelly then gets his money back by stealing the money Matthew raised to get Samnang, the Cambodian genius, to study in the U.S.

Production

Project began development at the end of 1999 with the first draft of the script delivered in early 2000. Christopher McKenna, who is mentioned in the director's commentary on the DVD, is responsible for the basic story structure and plot of the completed movie yet due to a Writer's Guild arbitration hearing he was stripped of all credit. Furthermore, according to Eli Roth (Hostel, etc.) in an interview on June 5th, 2007 on KITS "LIVE 105" (based in San Francisco, California), Chris McKenna got the story idea and the actual dialogue from conversations Chris had with Eli while Eli was in the editing studio for one of his movies. Eli Roth actually did date "the porn star next door" among others and Chris listened to his stories and turned it into this movie without crediting Eli. David Kartch was previously attached to direct but dropped out and was replaced by Luke Greenfield in 2002. Producers Charles Gordon and Marc Sternberg as well as studio executive Peter Cramer had earlier worked together as the producers of October Sky (1999) which also featured a teenager's attempts at social mobility.

According to the DVD commentary, the character of Eli is based on writer/director Eli Roth, and much of the production staff make direct appearances within the film, as does his mother, assistant, the producer, and the producer's assistants. Additionally, the prom in the film takes place in the cafeteria, much in the same way as the director's [citation needed]. These elements bestow a considerable personal touch on behalf of the production staff on the film.

The shooting began on January 11, 2003 at the College of the Canyons in Santa Clarita, California. All scenes showing topless models were also shot in PG-13 versions. Other locations included South Pasadena, the Masonic Lodge of Pasadena, Long Beach, and Hollywood (including a porn convention sequence shot at the Ren-Mar studios on Cahuenga Boulevard). The first kiss between Matthew and Danielle was shot on March 10, 2003 in the backyard of a house on Capri Drive north of Sunset Boulevard in Pacific Palisades. It was the first shot of a night that began at 8pm and ended at 5am. Unusually for the area, temperatures dipped into the high 30's, necessitating that portable gas heaters be brought in for the actors and extras.

Shooting in Agoura Hills was briefly halted to retrieve one of the parrots which was meant to attack Hirsch but instead flew up a nearby tree[citation needed]. As Hirsch was still a minor during production, all of his nude scenes were performed by a stunt double[citation needed]. For a lap dance scene, several pillows were placed between him and the dancer[citation needed]. Despite all this consideration, it is noted that the champagne drunk in the limo by the underage actors near the end of the movie was real[citation needed]. Two extras were injured during shooting at Ren-Mar studios in Hollywood, CA, during the scene where Matt "Horshu" Wiese chases the two sidekicks. Hirsch himself was hurt whilst filming a fight sequence with Timothy Olyphant.

Principal photography ended in late March but two days of pickups, mostly comprising the scenes from the opening montage, were shot in Santa Clarita on April 24 and 25. The first cut of the film ran 120 minutes which was later cut to 106 minutes. There are several rare versions of the one-sheet in which Hirsch's inset character wears a blue rather than red shirt. Versions also exist in which the uncredited Christopher McKenna is given a "Screenplay By" credit alongside Stuart Blumberg and Luke Greenfield. In these, original screenwriters David Wagner and Brent Goldberg receive "Story By" credit. This one-sheet was not released to theaters. Budgeted at $19.9 million, the final project costs were $21 million.

The original release date was intended to be March 5, 2004 but was moved to April 9, 2004, which happened to be Good Friday. As a play on the title of a competing film - The Passion of the Christ - a marketing executive offered the tagline "This Easter, experience a different kind of 'Passion'." This suggestion was quickly shot down by studio brass. Despite security precautions, the film appeared in pirated versions on the internet before its release, primarily due to extensive preview screenings. A high quality DVD transfer was also leaked before the home video release, which also was available for download through file sharing software.

Cast

Cameos

  • Actresses Sung-Hi Lee and Karen McDougal are both real-life Playboy models.
  • Beauty and the Geek contestant Lauren Bergfeld appeared in the audience during the auditorium scene.
  • Briana Banks and Jenna Jameson were also originally slated to appear in this film. Briana Banks does make an appearance, however, as the woman shown in the magazine at the beginning of the film.
  • The lips seen in the opening shot of the film are those of Amanda Swisten.
  • David Daskal from "Average Joe: Hawaii" (2004) appears in the beginning of the movie in a group of students and later on as a student in the classroom.
  • Professional wrestler Matt Wiese has a cameo as the boyfriend to one of the porn actresses during the Adult Film Convention sequence.
  • The Cougars lion costume featured in numerous scenes of the film is the same as that featured in Old School (2003), in which Elisha Cuthbert also appeared. In this film it is credited as the "Harrison Cougar."
  • The director makes an appearance in the montage at the film's end as a porn director.
  • The producers are visible in the waiting room of the airport scene.
  • The director's mother appears in the scholarship banquet scene.
  • The producer's assistants appear as Yale college students watching a sex-ed film at the end of the movie. One of Luke Greenfield's assistants also appeared in the cafeteria at the beginning of the film, implying that this fellow high school graduate also ended up going to college with Klitz's character.

Reception

Opening on 2,148 screens, the film grossed six million on its opening weekend, and took in a total worldwide of over $30 million dollars.[1]

Critical reaction

The movie received a fair amount of criticism, especially from conservative film critic Michael Medved, for its stereotypically glamourous portrayal of porn stars, particularly female porn stars. Roger Ebert described it as a "nasty piece of business", and faulted movie studios for marketing the film as a teen comedy.[2] Medved additionally charged the film with glamourously portraying other degenerate facets of current American culture, particularly American popular culture.

The film was also criticized by some for hyping Cuthbert as playing a porn star, and selling an "Unrated" version with box art simulating a censorship bar over her chest and torso, when no version of the film features any nudity by Cuthbert.[citation needed] The actual unrated cover just shows a modified outfit with a tube top and denim shorts.

Awards

The film was nominated for two MTV Movie Awards including Best Kiss and Breakthrough Female performance for Elisha Cuthbert.[3]

Soundtrack listing

Trivia

  • The line "So what's the craziest thing you've done lately?" spoken by Elisha Cuthbert can be found in the intro to Kill Hannah's 'Crazy Angel'.
  • U2 would not agree to license two of their songs for the film because of the nature of the story. Songs from Filter and The Verve were used instead.
  • Studio execs fought producers to remove the fantasy sequence where the school security officer dies in a car accident but relented when previews showed it got one of the biggest reactions of the film.
  • In the video room there are posters for Alien (1979), Planet of the Apes (1968), The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975) and X2 (2003) - all films released through Fox.
  • Elisha Cuthbert filmed this movie while she was filming 24 (2001). When asked about the hectic schedule, she said, "Our weekends were Monday and Tuesday and the show was, obviously, Saturday and Sunday, so every day for three months."
  • The video that Eli discovers of Danielle (which he shows to Matthew) features Steven St. Croix, a real-life porn actor.
  • The "Vivid Video" cap that Eli wears is from a real porn production company.
  • In the scene-specific DVD audio commentary for the film Emile Hirsch reveals that when shooting the scene where Elisha Cuthbert forces him to strip, director Luke Greenfield wanted him to shave his chesthair but Hirsch who was 17 at the time refused because, as he himself puts it, "did not wanna shave off my manhood".
  • Emile Hirsch improvised his order in the strip club scene, asking for a "Long Island Iced Tea."
  • The scene where Timothy Olyphant beats Emile Hirsch was shot on the site of the old Paramount ranch in Agoura Hills, near the set of Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman.
  • The drawing of herself Danielle gives Matthew in the café was actually drawn by Elisha Cuthbert.
  • During the scene in the strip club when Emile Hirsch is trying to figure out how to smoke the cigar, it falling out of his mouth is an accident. The director liked it so much, he left it in.
  • Paris Hilton parodies this movie in her music video for "Nothing in This World" (2006), in which Elisha Cuthbert has a cameo.
  • The car that Emile Hirsch is driving at the end is a 2005 BMW Z4 Roadster 2.5i.
  • When Eli kisses Klitz, the quote "I knew it was you Klitzy", is from The Godfather Part II when Michael kisses Fredo in the party. Matthew is also trying to shield himself in the background from the camera to hide his laughter from the kiss.
  • The plot structure of this film draws many parallels to the 1983 Tom Cruise film, Risky Business.
  • The scene where Timothy Olyphant's character gives the main character Ecstasy is a possible reference to his role as an Ecstasy dealer in the 1999 film, Go.

References

  1. ^ "The Girl Next Door (2004)". boxofficemojo.com. April 9th, 2004. Retrieved 2006-06-07. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |year= (help)
  2. ^ Ebert, Roger (April 9th, 2004). "THE GIRL NEXT DOOR". rogerebert.com. Retrieved 2006-06-07. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |year= (help)
  3. ^ "Awards for The Girl Next Door". imdb.com. Retrieved 2006-06-07.

External links

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