A teenager's dreams come true when a former porn star moves in next door and they fall in love.A teenager's dreams come true when a former porn star moves in next door and they fall in love.A teenager's dreams come true when a former porn star moves in next door and they fall in love.
- Awards
- 2 wins & 4 nominations
- Eli
- (as Chris Marquette)
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaAs Emile Hirsch was still a minor during production, all of his nude scenes were performed by a stunt double. For the lap dance scene, several pillows were placed between him and the dancer.
- GoofsWhen Mule attacks Eli at the convention, Eli forgets to take his jacket off of the couch arm, and leaves it there. Several scenes later in Matt's bedroom, he is seen wearing the same jacket that he left behind.
- Quotes
Matthew: Moral fiber. So, what is moral fiber? It's funny, I used to think it was always telling the truth, doing good deeds, basically
[mumbling]
Matthew: being a fucking boy scout. But lately I've been seeing it differently. Now I think moral fiber's about finding that one thing you really care about. That one special thing that means more to you than anything else in the world. And when you find her, you fight for her. You risk it all, you put her in front of everything, your life, all of it. And maybe the stuff you do to help her isn't so clean. You know what? It doesn't matter. Because in your heart you know, that the juice is worth the squeeze. That's what moral fiber's all about.
- Alternate versionsIn the alternate ending, Matt is *not* shown at college (as he is in the original version) but instead he is wearing a suit and smoking a cigar - standing at Capitol Hill, where we assume he is now working.
- ConnectionsEdited from The Girl Next Door: Deleted and Extended Scenes (2004)
- SoundtracksUnder Pressure
Written by David Bowie, John Deacon, Brian May, Freddie Mercury (as Frederick Mercury), Roger Taylor
Performed by David Bowie and Queen
Courtesy of RZO Music, Inc., EMI Records Ltd. and Hollywood Records
The debt this movie owes to "Risky Business" - starting with the score by ex-Tangerine Dream member Paul Haslinger (Tangerine Dream scored "Risky Business") - is pretty clear; both movies have bright but slightly life-challenged graduate students given to fantasising about things that go wrong as their main characters (step forward Emile Hirsch as the sympathetic hero), both have sex-obsessed best friends, both have women in the sex business as the main female characters who come into the hero's uptight life and help to liberate him, and both have sleazy male bosses (Timothy Olyphant plays the Guido equivalent). The movie also has the same mostly restrained view of its story where other movies would have played up the farce aspects - the only real hi-jinks come when the movie's plot takes in the Adult Film Convention in Las Vegas - but "The Girl Next Door" is a lot more engaging and has a lot more heart than "Risky Business" (good though that movie is, charm is not its strong point), with the title character seen as more of a person than a masturbatory object both by our hero and by the movie. When she goes with a motel with him and starts to play up The Porn Star, you really hope they don't go through with it.
The mood set up in the early stages is so convincing that when Olyphant's porn producer character turns up the movie seems to turn into another one entirely (and if you go to see this because of Elisha's "one for the men" status, I must warn you that she spends alarming amounts of time off-screen); it's still a good one, but it damages the overall movie's tone, and for most of the rest of the movie it veers back and forth between sweet and sleazy... but the amazing thing is that "The Girl Next Door" actually manages to find a happy balance of the two by the time the prom climax arrives (with more echoes of "Risky Business" en route, for sure).
True, there's no actual sex seen and little nudity, but the cast works so well and the movie's so sincere that by the end it doesn't seem like a ripoff. With good use of songs blending with the score, well-done fantasy sequences, and a welcome dose of intelligence in its writing, "The Girl Next Door" is probably the most adorable movie to get an R rating since "Pretty Woman," and well worth seeing even if you don't have a thing for Kim off "24." But this isn't for the "Daily Sport" crowd. Which is their loss.
"The juice was worth the squeeze."
- Victor Field
- Apr 22, 2004
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Details
Box office
- Budget
- $25,000,000 (estimated)
- Gross US & Canada
- $14,589,444
- Opening weekend US & Canada
- $6,003,806
- Apr 11, 2004
- Gross worldwide
- $30,381,722
- Runtime1 hour 49 minutes
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 1.85 : 1
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