# In Crowd, The (2000)

### reviewed by
Michael Dequina

_The_In_Crowd_ (PG-13) * (out of ****)

"What would you do to get in?" Apparently not much at all--that is, if Warner Bros.' poster for _The_In_Crowd_ is posing the question to audiences in reference to seeing this youth-aimed thriller. At the showing I attended in the middle of a very hot summer afternoon, there were only about 15 people in the auditorium, including myself. Still, that's about 15 more people than will show up a week for now, for it won't be long before this sloppy, predictable potboiler finds itself completely on the outs with paying moviegoers.

We first meet heroine Adrien (Lori Heuring) as she is being discharged from St. Anastasia's, a mental institution. (The reasons for her stay is one of the film's not-terribly-enticing mysteries.) Thanks to a kindly doctor (Daniel Hugh Kelly), Adrien gets a job at a swank country club that's a popular summer hangout among the elite college crowd. While most of this "in crowd" turn up their nose at Adrien, the group's ringleader, "luscious brunette" Brittany (Susan Ward) takes a surprisingly immediate liking to Adrien.

Of course, the reasons for Brittany's interest in Adrien are shrouded in secrecy, and once they are revealed, audiences will have trouble either keeping themselves from rolling their eyes or stifling a yawn. But for a while, director Mary Lambert and writers Mark Gibson and Philip Halprin suggest something a bit more provocative. The two initially bond after Brittany fakes a suicide attempt in a pool, and Adrien "saves" her with some mouth-to-mouth. Later, Brittany bails Adrien out of trouble with her boss by implying she had her hands full--with her. Then on a hot night on the dance floor, the two seem a lot more interested in getting down with each other than a guy who manages to squeeze his way between them.

But this is a PG-13 movie, so this bit of shameless (and, I must admit, rather amusing) audience pandering doesn't go quite far enough to give the entire film a kinky watchability. Before long, Brittany spies Adrien having coffee with the hunky tennis pro (Matthew Settle) she'd had her eye on, and suddenly all the warnings Adrien had been given about Brittany's true nature appear justified. People start to have mysterious accidents, and Adrien finds herself in danger of being sent back to the loony bin.

Theoretically, _The_In_Crowd_ should build some momentum at this point, but the plotting is so pedestrian and the execution generally so ho-hum that it's impossible to care. So one is left to savor the few guilty pleasures available: some campy catfighting between Adrien and Brittany, and the lightly entertaining performance of _Sunset_Beach_ alumna Ward, who plays a vixen with verve. Like the others, there's no real meat to the character of Brittany (the fact that one of her defining characteristics is a weakness for lip gloss says it all), but at least Ward has some fun with her part.

Moviegoers, however, will find it just about impossible to have much fun with _The_In_Crowd_. It's fairly slow-moving, and after a long buildup, the promised thrills never arrive. Unfortunately for Warner Bros., the hoped-for teen audience will never arrive, either.

Michael Dequina twotrey@juno.com | michael_jordan@geocities.com | jordan_host@sportsmail.com | mrbrown@iname.com Mr. Brown's Movie Site: http://welcome.to/mrbrown CinemaReview Magazine: http://www.CinemaReview.com on ICQ: #25289934 | on AOL Instant Messenger: MrBrown23

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