MovieChat Forums > The Girl Next Door (2004) Discussion > What this movie got right...

What this movie got right...

posted 9 months ago by Enigmaticocean77 (2410)
9 replies | jump to latest

This movie is both a good film and a steaming pile of $h!t all at the same time. Right now, I don't want to concentrate on the negatives. I want to concentrate on the things that this film got right.

Timothy Olyphant as Kelly was amazing. He was the likable douche bag that in real life everyone knows. That guy, who you want to kill, but then he's your best friend two minutes later. Unfortunately (or fortunately) by the time you hit 30, you can't stand him anymore. But he still possesses what I call the Bill Clinton gene. He can still fool most people into thinking he's a great guy but is really a complete scumbag.

Making most of the people in the porn industry out to be either complete sleaze or completely brain dead was pretty spot on. I've seen some porn convention interview posts on youtube and the people in those videos are just like the ones you see in this film. I should add that in those videos you do encounter the occasional sweet girl who seems sincere (like Danielle in this film) and all you can think is how in the blue hell did this girl wind up doing porn? She is a 10 in the looks department, she's sweet as can be, and most guys would give their right arm for someone like her. Then you come to your senses and think to yourself something is off, something is really off, or she wouldn't have gone into porn. 🙁

The dopey girls (high school girls in this instance) fawning over the scummy older guy. How true is this? Seriously, most women love a complete scumbag. I don't understand it, but it's a fact of life.

This last thing is probably the most important thing. While watching this film I got the feeling that Danielle really believed in Matthew. The way she looked at him, the way she talked to him, and the way she listened to him, she absolutely positively 100% believed in him. It actually oozes out of the film. The two of them never say "I love you" but while watching this I could tell that they were completely in love with one another. It's actually pretty inspirational just how well they were able to act like they were in love.

[–] mechajutaro (2788) 9 months ago

I take it the second part of your post will mention how improbable Dani and Matt hooking up is

[–] Enigmaticocean77 (2410) 9 months ago

Actually no. I didn't think that it was too improbable. I've seen some insanely hot women date some real dorks.

Also, as I pointed out about the two of them were able to really convey that they were in love with one another. It's never stated in the film, but it's really obvious how they both feel. It's actually a compliment to both of their acting abilities.

I never saw either of them in anything else. So, perhaps this film was just a fluke in that regard, but they both did really well in this... even if the movie was half a pile of $h!t. Their chemistry and believability actually made it enjoyable in places.

[–] Melton (4435) 9 months ago

I really like the film but I never once really believed Danielle was a porn star. We never see her getting fucked or behaving in that dumb/damaged way that real porn stars do. In most cases they’re sexual abuse victims who use overt sexuality to get adoration to compensate for a gaping black hole in their self-esteem which should have been filled with parental love.

None of that psychological or emotional damage was evident with Danielle. She’s more like a really hot, surprisingly balanced movie star.

[–] Enigmaticocean77 (2410) 3 months ago

None of the psychological or emotional damage was evident in Danielle because it was a movie. Had this been real life she would have been a complete psychopath.

In my life I have known three girls who were former strippers.

The first was my friend's ex-wife. She was a complete disaster. The first time he met her she said to him "You just saved me from doing crack with that guy over there." As a result of her making him feel like he was a hero and him believing that he could be her savior he began dating her and quickly asked her to marry him just as quick. I told him not to marry her and that he couldn't change her and no matter what he did for her (and he did A LOT) she wound never appreciate him. The guy found her with another man before they even got married and he married her anyway!... She ended up destroying his life. He lost his house, and he was dead broke by the time their divorce went though.

I knew another girl who was a singer in a band that I was in when I was younger. She ended up becoming a stripper and got hooked on meth. I watched her slowly die over the course of about ten years. It was brutal stuff.

The third girl was an ex-girlfriend of mine. I didn't know that she was a former stripper when I started dating her. As time went by it came out. It also came out that she was abused by an older sibling when she was younger and molested by one of her mother's boyfriends when she was young. She was completely damaged and because I was young and very much in love, I put up with a lot that I should not have put up with. She destroyed ever relationship that she had before me and after me because she's a damaged manipulator.

This movie fails in the reality department in that regard. Strippers, and porn stars are always severely damaged. It's like you said, it would have been more believable if she hadn't been a porn star, but then the movie would have been completely different and maybe it would have actually been good.

I still enjoy the film, but it has a believability factor of zero.

[–] PaladinNJ (21509) 3 months ago

You do realize that the majority of former porn stars are actually normal well-adjusted people? To them it was a job and that was it. You only hear about the head cases because that is what sells headlines.

[–] Melton (4435) 3 months ago

The film is marketed to fantasists like you who want to believe that pornstars are healthy, normal people.

They’re damaged goods who were molested as children, and if they ever got with you or Matthew they would chew you up and spit you out broke and ruined.

[–] Enigmaticocean77 (2410) 3 months ago

Just read interviews with them. The majority of porn stars were abused in some way when they were young. There's no other logical reason for women who are solid 8.5s to solid 10s to go into such a field unless they are victims of some form of severe emotional abuse at some point in their lives. Which, most of them admit to.

I listed three girls that I knew over the course of my life who were strippers, and they were all the product of some form of abuse when they were young. Most people who go into some form of pornographic field have severe mental issues.

As for what Melton said about leaving you broke and ruined- he's right. My friend who married a stripper ended up broke and ruined. Both of his parents had died and left him a great deal of money. Sadly, he used that money to finance her life. He was a good guy, but she ate him up and spat him out.

My ex (who I wrote about above) tried that with me. She always had problems, she couldn't keep a job, she was always broke. I did help her out on occasion, but I knew if I kept helping her that I would just be enabling her. I don't think she cared about me. I was just a way for her to survive, a means to an end if you will. I was just another somebody for her to manipulate. I knew that if I stayed with her, she would ruin my life. I chose to walk away because the juice wasn't worth the squeeze.

[–] liscarkat (18367) 3 months ago

"Seriously, most women love a complete scumbag. I don't understand it, but it's a fact of life."

So true. I was always Mr. Nice Guy, and women barely noticed me. My brother, neither richer nor better looking than me, treated them like crap and they were all over him like flies on shit. A fact of life, indeed.

[–] Enigmaticocean77 (2410) 3 months ago

Yeah, it's weird. It makes no sense to men, because we are mostly dominated by logic. If a girl sh!ts on us we don't bother with them. With women (more often than not) it's the polar opposite.