# Never Been Kissed (1999)

### reviewed by
Scott Renshaw

NEVER BEEN KISSED (20th Century Fox) Starring: Drew Barrymore, David Arquette, Michael Vartan, Leelee Sobieski, Jeremy Jordan, Molly Shannon, John C. Reilly. Screenplay: Abby Kohn & Marc Silverstein. Producers: Sandy Isaac and Nancy Juvonen. Director: Raja Gosnell. MPAA Rating: PG-13 (adult themes, profanity, drug use) Running Time: 104 minutes. Reviewed by Scott Renshaw.

I'm willing to forgive NEVER BEEN KISSED many of its failings because, for all practical purposes, it's a fantasy. I can over look the irony of a film about an adult returning to interact with teenagers which portray teens the same inane way adults usually think of them. I can let it slide that the tone is terminally bubbly when a touch of venom might have helped. I can even shrug my shoulders at the notion that Drew Barrymore was ever a spat-upon teen wretch. Sometimes a romantic comedy can get away with being ridiculous as it strives to pull us into its wish fulfillment. What it can't get away with is being lazy or being miscast, the two blunders that insure NEVER BEEN KISSED never had a chance.

Our high-concept premise finds 25-year-old Chicago Sun-Times copy editor Josie Geller (Barrymore) offered her first real reporting assignment: going undercover as a high school student. The assignment brings mixed emotions for Josie, a brainy high school outcast still smarting from her adolescent ostracism. As she begins her quest for a story, Josie finds herself drawn back into the world of the "smart kids" at South Glen South High School, including her new friend Aldys (Leelee Sobieski). That's before her editor (John C. Reilly) demands that Josie get in with the in crowd, and before Josie's arrested adolescent 23-year-old brother Rob (David Arquette) also re-enrolls and helps turn the one-time "Josie Grossie" into a potential prom queen.

NEVER BEEN KISSED does a serviceable job of telling Josie's story, exploring how a woman comes to terms with the person she was and is. If only the script had shown as much dilligence with the other elements. Arquette's character is potentially even more interesting than Barrymore's -- a jock who peaked at 18 trying to re-live his glory days -- but it's generally watered-down and ignored. The romantic angle between Josie and her English teacher (Michael Vartan) is half-heartedly developed, muddles the entire point of the story -- are we supposed to believe that Josie was incapable of finding true love before re-creating her traumatic youth? -- and builds to a spectacularly clumsy conclusion. Most depressing of all is a ghastly device which finds Josie wearing a miniature camera, contributing nothing more to the story than pointless cutaways to Josie's co-workers gaping or cringing in embarrassment.

There's plenty to gape and cringe at as Barrymore plays Josie. You've got to admire how gamely Barrymore subjects herself to humiliating situations, but she's all wrong for the lead role in her first feature as executive producer. Even the marketing people at Fox realize that she's most appealing as a sweet object of desire, making the central image in the film's publicity a photo of Barrymore smiling coquettishly with knee drawn up to her chest. As a star carrying this film, she looks out of her depth. It's slightly embarrassing watching her play the professional Josie as a tightly-coiffed fussbudget correcting everyone's grammar and usage; as implausible as she may be as a high school senior, she proves even more implausible as a grown-up.

You always want to like a film as good-natured as NEVER BEEN KISSED, even though it wants so much to be liked. There simply isn't a nuance to the material that director Raja Gosnell manages to capture, not a moment of sincere emotion, nothing that doesn't look like it wouldn't exist if not for other movies about kids in high school. When the script manages to work in a wise observation -- like the idea that one popular person in high school can dictate who's cool and who's not -- it feels like someone tripped over it accidentally. NEVER BEEN KISSED is most certainly a fantasy for anyone who ever felt like the quintessential high school outsider, but the film-makers are living in a fantasy world if they think that's all they need to deliver.

         On the Renshaw scale of 0 to 10 kissed opportunities:  4.

                       Visit Scott Renshaw's Screening Room
                        http://www.inconnect.com/~renshaw/
                                       ***
                 Subscribe to receive new reviews directly by email!
     See the Screening Room for details, or reply to this message with subject
                                   "Subscribe".

The review above was posted to the rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup (de.rec.film.kritiken for German reviews).
The Internet Movie Database accepts no responsibility for the contents of the review and has no editorial control. Unless stated otherwise, the copyright belongs to the author.
Please direct comments/criticisms of the review to relevant newsgroups.
Broken URLs inthe reviews are the responsibility of the author.
The formatting of the review is likely to differ from the original due to ASCII to HTML conversion.

Related links: index of all rec.arts.movies.reviews reviews