Get Over It
**
Cinema
Releases - June 8, 2001
Rated on a 4-star scale. Certificate 12. 87
minutes. Directed by Tommy O'Haver. Written by R. Lee Fleming Jr. Starring
Kirsten Dunst, Ben Foster, Melissa Sagemiller, Sisqo, Shane
West.
"Get Over It" is not wholly
distinguished from other high school movies -- in its general look and feel,
it is no different from most of the pictures where teenage guys and gals
go through typical Hollywood motions. But you have to give it credit for
trying. Some of the film's eccentric characters are more outrageous than
you'd expect, like the hero's parents, who present a TV show about sex
counselling. And also unexpected are the film's surreal flights of fancy
-- fantasy sequences and big set pieces, such as when a marching band follows
a kid down the street, singing his thoughts.
Yes, I do give "Get Over It" credit for trying,
but I do not praise it because it does not work. The imaginative touches
seem tacked on and uninspired, and although the filmmakers are showing awareness
that their genre needs to be reworked, their attempts to put fresh spin on
things don't often raise the energy level.
The story: Berke (Ben Foster) has broken up with
his girlfriend of two years, the outrageously gorgeous Allison (Melissa
Sagemiller). She's decided to start dating an arrogant British guy named
Striker (Shane West). Berke decides that he could impress Allison enough
to win her back by performing in the school musical, and so to polish up
his performance skills, he calls on his buddy's little sister, Kelly (Kirsten
Dunst). Berke and Kelly of course fall for each other and don't realise it
until the end of the movie.
There's nothing special about the plot, and since
the razzle-dazzle touches don't quite work either, the movie sits on the
screen pretty blandly. One thing that's actively aggravating is the British
villain -- he talks with one of those accents so phoney, so stiff and so
unlike anything that has ever come out of the mouth of a Brit that you wonder
whether the filmmakers are deliberately trying to make us wince in embarrassment.
Surely there must be people in Hollywood who aren't completely unaware of
what British people sound like. Why is it that so many movies give us these
weird alien voices and claim they're British?
Another curiosity about this picture is that it
demonstrates just how far gross-out humour has penetrated Hollywood thinking.
No longer is it just the stuff of outrageous, Farrelly-esque comedy. "See
Spot Run", which was supposed to be a kids' movie, showed a dog biting into
a gangster's testicles and a guy falling into a massive pile of excrement.
"Get Over It", which is supposed to be an easy-going little romantic comedy,
features a dog humping a basketball, an electrocution, a cow urinating on
the hero and kids drinking punch filled with vomit.
To reflect on something much more appealing, I
will mention Kirsten Dunst. Her two biggest previous roles were "Interview
with the Vampire", in which she was just a tot, and "Bring It On", which
didn't give her many interesting things to do. Here she is more alive then
we've ever seen her, shining in the role of a beautiful, intelligent young
woman. Here's hoping she gets to show off her charm in better teen movies
than this, before she outgrows them.
COPYRIGHT©
2001 Ian Waldron-Mantgani
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