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Review by Susan Granger
3 stars out of 4
How deep are your teenage emotional scars? Anyone who has
ever experienced an awkward, horrible humiliation in high school will
relate to Drew Barrymore's dilemma as she is forced to negotiate the
social and emotional land mines of adolescence - not once but
twice. As mousy, 25 year-old Josie Geller, an incurable romantic and
the youngest copy editor at the "Chicago Sun Times," she's assigned to
go undercover to report on today's teenagers. But Josie was a brainy
nerd in high school, a gawky geek to the core, nicknamed "Josie
Grossie," and her re-visit promises to be a repeat. "All I wanted was
to be accepted, and they just tortured me," she wails to her younger
brother (David Arquette), a self-styled "loser," who decides to lend
support, catapulting her from "outcast" to "instant popularity." And,
of course, she finds romance with an English literature teacher
(Michael Vartan) who finds himself uncomfortably attracted to one of
his "students." Drew Barrymore has a dazzling comic flair; her saucy
performance is hilarious. One of the newer trends in the motion
picture business is targeting a specific audience - in this case,
teenage girls, who are all to familiar with the cattiness, cruelty,
and clique-mentality. This romantic comedy has all the hallmarks of
vintage John Hughes - think "Pretty in Pink" and "Sixteen Candles" -
as director Raja Gosnell coaxes freshness out of Abby Kohn and Marc
Silverstein's formulaic script, which delivers the message: "Find out
who you are and try not to be afraid of it." On the Granger Movie
Gauge of 1 to 10, "Never Been Kissed" is a lively if sophomoric 7 -
but, for its target audience, it's a captivating, totally cool teenage
chick's flick.
Copyright © 2000 Susan Granger
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out of 4
