Starring:
Elisabeth Harnois,Jesse McCartney
Category: Teen Drama / Romance
Keith (Jesse McCartney) is what some people call trouble. He views his world with contempt and he knows that the adults around him are powerless to change him. He mocks them openly. He knows they are uncomfortable around him. So he uses their discomfort to make them do what he wants and get what he wants.
Keith decides to bring down school goody-two-shoes Natalie (Elisabeth Harnois). First, he makes their science teacher pair them together. He creates this elaborate persona, mysterious and challenging. He never bends to her basic requests and answers few questions as possible. He knows he can take advantage of her inquisitive personality this way. He makes her work even for the simplest things.
Keith wants to humiliate her. He starts by making her do things she wouldn't normally do. He thinks that it would bring her out of her comfort zone, making her more vulnerable. But he discovers instead someone who is closer to himself than he thought. When it comes to understanding their world around them, her view isn't too far off than his.
While Natalie does great in school, is involved in school activities and has an active social life, she understands that high school doesn't last. She puts the right amount of attention and importance to them. She avoids teen drama as much as she can. She knows about the pecking order and realizes she is at the top. She just doesn't care that much about it. She has a better grip on life and her reality than most of her friends.
She is popular and socializes in the right circles but has no qualms when it comes to making friends outside these circle. She knows exactly where all of these things stand in the big picture.
Natalie is really running in automatic most of the time anyway as her parents has planned her life in detail. However, they do leave space for her own activities. They don't try to stop her from being a teenager. Since she is good at school, she apparently has relaxed house rules. That and because she follows their plan.
She knows there is a world beyond hers but doesn't venture further than what she's used to. Not to say that she would feel uncomfortable with it, there was no reason to venture out further. She is not afraid of it. She simply has no reason to push her boundaries.
Until she meets Keith. Keith lures her further and further away from her comfort zone. He points out things in her life that makes her question her life and direction. But as he draws her away from her 'comfort zone', she finds she is not too uncomfortable with it all. She deals with it as she would anything else. It doesn't cause the damage he expects. She in turn, tries to be part of his life. This catches him by surprise. Instead he becomes uncomfortable. She want their relationship to grow but he doesn't.
The movie starts out promising and is romantic and touching. But it isn't great. The world of the movie is fairly realistic, though. High school cliches are avoided but it seems the producers and director were casting actors who looked older. If they were trying to make up for Elisabeth Harnois, they really didn't have to. She is much older than Jesse McCartney but looks no older than he is. What they ended up with is this weird group of teens in the popular group who look out of place from the rest of the school.
Keith starts the movie being arrogant. Being young comes with a sense of arrogance. A sense of rebellion. It comes with the absence of experience. It may even be a mechanism for dealing with a new-found realization of a world larger than what was known and comfortable with.
Either way, Hollywood has been tapping into this sense for a long time. Just look at the image of James Dean and Rebel Without A Cause. That, I think, is what the people behind this movie were aiming for. A rebel that could be looked up to, that continues in that great tradition of movie rebels. That was what they were aiming for in the character of Keith.
What they ended up with was an irredeemable jerk called Keith. Seriously, not a moment goes through the movie when you don't want to slap that smirk off his face. Which is just about the range of Jesse McCartney's acting in this movie. Be mysterious expression? Smirk. I don't care attitude? Smirk. Surprised expression? Smirk. CSI: Las Vegas did a stunt casting by having him on. Elisabeth Harnois is a regular on the series. He was mostly in the hospital bed barely making sense with a few lines at the end. That was I guess how much they trusted his acting.
Some people had problems with how Natalie fell for Keith. Really, there is no reason. But when is love reasonable? She felt an attraction, a kinship with his views on life. She felt challenged in the relationship and she liked it. They communicated at a different level. Both were wearing masks. Masks that worked in their social world around them but not to each other. They had to remove it to honestly communicate and within that they found something special. They found a form of comfort that one can only find in truth and dealing with it. Which is a rare thing for a teenager. This part of the movie worked but I think that it was because it was told from Natalie's point of view.
