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Drive Me Crazy
***
Rated on a 4-star
scale
Screening venue: Odeon (Manchester City Centre)
Released in the UK by Fox on June 9, 2000; certificate 12; 94 minutes; country
of origin USA; aspect ratio 1.85:1
Directed by John Schultz; produced by Amy
Robinson. Written by Rob Thomas; based on the novel "How I Created
By Perfect Prom Date" by Todd Strasser. Photographed by Kees Van
Oostrum; edited by John Pace.
CAST.....
Melissa Joan Hart..... Nicole Maris
Adrian Grenier..... Chase Hammons
Stephen Collins..... Mr. Maris
Susan May Pratt..... Alicia
Mark Webber..... Dave
Kris Park..... Ray Neeley
Gabriel Carpenter..... Brad
Lourdes Benedicto..... Chloe Frost
Chase and Nicole, the protagonists of "Drive
Me Crazy", have known each other since childhood. They are neighbours,
and used to be best friends, before Chase's mother died, when Nicole tried
to give him some space, and the pair ended up drifting apart. The important
thing is that they have history, so the movie is devoid of the pointless
'getting-to-know-each-other' crap that usually fills high-school romantic
comedies.
One of the flaws of the movie is that their school
is unusually technologically advanced. It has its own television broadcasting
system, for one thing, and other snazzy features that are never fully explained.
But this is more than made up for by the down-to-earth nature of the inhabitants
-- amazingly, for an American high-school picture, there is interaction between
factions, everyone knows each other, and people do have other things to worry
about than who's taking who to the prom. Maybe the USA's educational institutions
aren't like that; maybe they really are as inhuman and elitist as most films
portray them to be, with so many pupils that people can actually say "Wow...
I never thought you'd ever noticed me before." But even if that is the case,
it's no excuse for depicting them as such in movies, because it's bizarre
and distracting. "Drive Me Crazy" knows this, and gives its characters
behavioural patterns that can be perceived as normal by people outside
America.
The story: Chase (Adrian Grenier), an alternative
music fan who dresses in dark clothes and wears his hair long, and Nicole
(Melissa Joan Hart), who is in school committees, dutifully cheers at school
ball games, and hangs with the 'in-crowd', have both been dumped by their
sweethearts. This situation affects Nicole the most desperately, because
she needs a date for the end-of-term dance (I said that's not all they
think about, not that they don't think about it at all). When it seems that
she has few desirable options, she decides to hook up with Chase -- a sham
relationship, you understand, designed to vex Chase's ex-girlfriend and avoid
embarrassment for Nicole.
Nicole doesn't want to be seen dating a rebellious
outsider, so she decides that in the weeks before the dance, Chase must clean
himself up and infiltrate her circle of friends. After a haircut, a trip
to Gap and some effortless bluffing, Chase is pretty much in -- and, wouldn't
you know it, with all this time spent together, Nicole and Chase are starting
to genuinely turn each other on.
The film is aware of how stupid and off-putting
it is when teenagers think they're in love, and doesn't pretend that these
two are. They simply enjoy each other's company, are attracted to each other,
and want to keep acting on their feelings. There isn't a moment when this
suddenly dawns on them, either. You'd expect the movie to start out with
Chase and Nicole hating each other, and have them not realise their obvious
lust for as long as the thread can be milked. But the characters in "Drive
Me Crazy" realise their potential to end up together from the beginning,
and frequently discuss it.
Another trap side-stepped is the heavy-handed
laying-on of themes. It would have been easy for the movie to fall into this
one, as it deals with the subjects of identity and loyalty. Chase's pals
wonder what the hell he's doing making friends with vacuous jocks, and there
are times when he can't take it himself. But this is not a big athletes versus
moshers movie, and handles issues as they come up, intelligently, in the
form of conversation.
Perhaps you're staring at this review in stunned
disbelief. The trailer for "Drive Me Crazy" is comprised entirely of scenes
from the first twenty minutes of the film, giving a misleading impression
of the story and making it seem like a pathetic ode to conformity. It doesn't
help that the source material is a novel entitled "How I Created My Perfect
Prom Date". But the film itself is a pleasant surprise; not quite as well-made
as a John Hughes, perhaps, but every bit as good as a Howard
Deutch.
COPYRIGHT© 2000 Ian
Waldron-Mantgani
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