Crazy Beautiful

You're looking at this review and thinking: can I really take any more toilet humour? Any more knob gags? Do we really need yet another teen movie? Judge for yourself...

Nicole (Kirsten Dunst) is a bad girl. She indulges in sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll, and we know because she has dirty hair, never wears a bra and has melodramatic mood swings. Most of this textbook teenage rebellion is due to being the daughter of a congressman. Carlos (Jay Hernandez) is an unlikely boyfriend. A top-of-the-class student, star of the football team, he takes a two-hour bus journey to go to the same privileged school as Nicole.

Yes, this is a class-difference, cross-race love story. Not an original concept, but the film uses these themes to enrich what is at heart a finely-drawn study of a girl and her magnetic self-destruction, and the boy who could save her. The script manages to avoid clichés of every kind; even Nicole's parents are far from being the well-meaning but clueless adults usually seen in teen drama.

The acting brings more weight to the film. Dunst, while not as good as in the luminous Virgin Suicides, outdoes her performances in Bring It On and Drop Dead Gorgeous by a long way. By turns charming, ballsy, pathetic and frustrating, the most surprising thing is that she is courageous enough to show her 'ugly duckling' side. Hernandez is a wonderful contrast; apart from being great eye candy, his characterisation never wavers in to do-gooder or nerd territory, which would have been an easy mistake.

Crazy/Beautiful: not just another teen flick.

Pheobe Layton