Rating: 

The Info

Directed by: Raja Gosnell
Written by: Abby Kohn & Marc Silverstein
Starring: Drew Barrymore, Molly Shannon, David Arquette, Michael Vartan, John C. Reilly, Leelee Sobieski
Produced by: Sandy Isaac, Nancy Juvonen

The Nutshell

A lonely copy editor is chosen to go undercover as a high school student to get a newsworthy scoop. The problem? She was a nerd in high school, and hasn't changed.

The Review

    Drew Barrymore has been labelled many things; cute and carefree come to mind the quickest. She has an air about her that tends to give her films a feel-good boost. Like Julia Roberts and Meg Ryan, Drew tends to choose roles that accentuate her cute qualities (even when she plays a bad girl, she is still a cute bad girl). It is for this reason that Never Been Kissed works as well as it does. A romantic comedy of sorts, the film is a well-directed blend of laughs, typically implausible romantic scenes and a good cast.

    Josie Geller (Barrymore) is a copy editor for a Chicago newspaper who is chosen to go back to high school undercover. She is to pretend to be a student and find a newsworthy story to tell. Josie's difficulties start with the realization that in high school, she was known as "Josie Grossie" and was almost universally dis-liked. Now 25, Josie is still a loner, stuck in a world of grammar and vocabulary where she corrects people's English mistakes in place of becoming friends with them. She has never had a boyfriend and got rudely stood up on prom night by the hottest guy in class.

    Once in school history starts repeating itself. Her class is filled with all of the usual stereotypical cliques (jocks, snobs etc.) Josie winds up stuck hanging around with the nerds, led by Aldys (Sobieski). She finds a temporary home with them, but is forced by her boss Gus (Reilly) to wear a hidden camera and go after the cool people. Along the way she happens to start falling for two people, the class's most popular teen Guy, and her English teacher Sam (Vartan). Josie goes through many ups and downs, helped along the way by her co-worker Anita (Shannon) and her brother Rob (Arquette). By the film's climax, there are very few surprises, a couple of romantic bumps and a predictable but enjoyable transformation by Josie.

    Writers Abby Kohn and Marc Silverstein truly capture the angst of a high school freak. Teenaged Josie's pathetic but uncontrollable desire for the class hunk, shown in numerous flashbacks, is familiar and well-written. The fickleness of popularity and the myriad ways in which one can be accepted in school are approached thoughtfully if tamely. Most actors look far older than seventeen, as is the usual case for teen films, yet many manage to capture the qualities of their characters convincingly. Director Raja Gosnell has crafted a hip, fun lightweight piece of fluff that carries no morals or messages, but gives its audience what it wants.

    Barrymore obviously has fun with her image as the teenaged, braces-wearing acne-faced Josie. She exudes her usual amount of cuteness and makes the audience care about what happens to her. Arquette and Shannon essentially do the characters they always do, but they add to the film's humour and fun spirit. Michael Vartan, handsome and cool is hip and funny as Josie's main love interest. Never Been Kissed's editors could have been a bit more judicious in their scene snipping, as the film contains a couple of unneeded sub-plots; A romance between Anita and Gus is particularly pointless and poorly rendered on the screen. The ending is highly implausible and typical of romantic comedies, but while it is critically poor, the film's core audience shouldn't care. They get Barrymore in a role suited for her, laughs, tears and a big Hollywood ending to go home happy to. A fun diversion.

Copyright - Tim Chandler

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