Never Been Kissed, starring Drew Barrymore, Michael Vartan, Molly Shannon, David Arquette, Leelee Sobieski and Garry Marshall. Directed by Raja Gosnell. 1999.
Reviewed by John Carroll.
In the past few years, teenage-geared movies have become all the "rage" in Hollywood. Starting with the wildly popular Scream, teenage films have become a must in most studios. However, like all fads, this one is coming to its end. Never Been Kissed entered the race late for the teen audience, and ironically, had a twenty-five year-old star leading the way. Just like the fad it was made for, Never Been Kissed fails in all ways possible, yet somehow keeps you from hating it, which is about the only thing it does right.
The premise of Never Been Kissed revolves around the Chicago-Sun Times's copy editor, Josie Geller, also known as Josie Grossie. Her ultimate dream is to become an investigative reporter, and when she gets her first-ever assignment from Mr. Rigfort (Garry Marshall), she has to go back to high school and investigate the teens that go there. I must admit, I personally thought this could have been a wonderful premise for a comedy, but, director Raja Gosnell obviously was forced to aim this towards teens and Never Been Kissed fails even before it starts.
Drew Barrymore stars as Josie Geller, and continues her streak of "adorable" performances. With such a horrible script, Barrymore basically tries to carry the film on her shoulders. Unfortunately, the burden is too much. Barrymore gives Never Been Kissed only a few scents of decent laughs, and not even SNL's Molly Shannon can get more than one laugh. Yes, she even manages to do worse than she did in the hideous Superstar, because she at least gave an effort in that film.
The rest of the cast is basically unrecognizable, and that aspect is illuminated by their terrible performances. David Arquette plays Rob, Josie's brother, and despite not being that funny in the first place, Never Been Kissed does not even capitalize on his ability to get a few stunt laughs.
The biggest problem with Never Been Kissed is all of the ripe possibilities. Instead of capitalizing on the laughs that could have been gained between the budding relationship between the student and teacher (Barrymore and Michael Vartan), they make it serious, and do not even do that well. Never Been Kissed even brushes on some funny topics, like Rob dating a 16 year-old gymnast, but instead of divulging into the topic, it is hastily resolved and ignored for the rest of the film.
Despite all of the gripes, and there are a lot of them, it is still hard to hate Never Been Kissed. Drew Barrymore has an aura about her that is able to save a few shreds of decency for such a horrible film. Barrymore once again proves she can lead a film, it just seems that the rest of the world is not ready to pay to see it. Until Barrymore can get into another good film, something like The Wedding Singer, which allows her to shine and get laughs, Barrymore will continue to play second fiddle to other romantic comedies like Notting Hill.
While it may be hard to hate Never Been Kissed, it is still a horrible piece of filmmaking, if it can even be called that. Once Barrymore leaves the screen, that hatred shoots up as fast as possible. Unless you are a really big Drew Barrymore fan- and I mean a BIG Barrymore fan- please stay away from Never Been Kissed. Rent something better, even something meaningful, like the wonderful Life is Beautiful.
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