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Crazy/Beautiful
(Reviewed June 1, 2001, by James Dawson)
-
Kirsten Dunst is pretty good as a messed-up, borderline alcoholic, unloved "poor-little-rich-girl" stepdaughter who falls in wuv with a lower-class, straight-arrow, Mexican-American boy. But this isn't the kind of movie I can imagine anyone regarding as "must drive to the theater and pay to see" entertainment. It's more like one of those you might stick with if you were flipping around cable channels on a slow TV night.
Essentially, this is a very low-key "Romeo and Juliet"-type tale. Their parents want them to stay apart, but nobody gets too agitated about it. There are lots of make-out scenes (ah, the tender joys of statutory rape!). Kirsten never wears a bra during the entire movie, and there are a few "underview" peekaboo shots of her very large breasts from inside the bottom of a gaping shirt, but no actual nudity whatsoever. (Sorry, fellers.)
The filmmakers manage to resist using even a single gun in the entire movie, which counts for something. When Kirsten and a female friend drive to her boyfriend's lower-class L.A. neighborhood at night, you'll be thinking that a flashy drive-by has to be right around the corner, but things stay very copacetic.
A scene toward the end is patently ridiculous, in which Kirsten's dad delivers a long, all-encompassing, soul-baring monolog to Kirsten's boyfriend. But for the most part, the movie rolls along inoffensively enough and tries to be more than just another "Dude, Where's My Bra?" flick. Even though Kirsten seems to have lost all of hers. Oh, did I mention that already?
Back Row Grade: C-
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