Two stars out of
five
Running time: 85 mins
Watchable teen comedy with the obligatory Shakespeare angle - a likeable cast and some good gags, but ultimately rather weak.
When high-school kid Berke (Ben Foster from Liberty Heights) is dumped by his perfect girlfriend Alison (Melissa Sagemiller), he’s understandably distraught, especially when she takes up with arrogant boy-band member Striker (Shane West, looking remarkably like American Pie’s Seann William Scott, but a much worse actor).
Against the pleas of his best friends (Sisqo and Colin ‘Son Of Tom’ Hanks) to "get over it", he joins the school musical production of ‘A Midsummer Night’s Rockin’ Eve’ in order to win Alison back.
However, he needs coaching in the acting, singing and dancing departments, so he turns to Hanks’ sister Kelly (Kirsten Dunst) for help, unaware that Kelly has a huge crush on him…
No prizes, then, for guessing how it all turns out. In fact, this is one of the film’s main problems, because, as likeable as Foster is, it’s difficult to have much sympathy for a character who has Kirsten Dunst lusting after him from the beginning.
To be fair, we’re supposed to believe that he doesn’t notice her ‘in that way’ because she’s his friend’s sister, but after a certain point, this just becomes ridiculous.
Teen comedies with a Shakespearean or otherwise classical literary angle are all the rage these days, what with She’s All That (Pygmalion), Clueless (Emma) and the superb Ten Things I Hate About You (The Taming of the Shrew).
Unfortunately, while Get Over It’s fantasy sequences work well enough, the Shakespearean element (apparently shoe-horned in at the insistence of Miramax head honcho Harvey Weinstein) doesn’t really gel with the rest of the plot here.
That said, the songs, courtesy of Marc Shaiman (who did the wonderful songs for the South Park movie) are perfect, being both infectious and funny – they’re definitely among the film’s high-lights.
To be fair, there’s a lot to enjoy here, but you’ll probably end up wishing that the whole film could just have been, well…better. Dunst, though, is wonderful as ever – as she proved with Bring It On, she can make anything watchable. The rest of the cast are attractive, though both Sisqo and Mila Kunis (Jackie from That 70s Show) are under-used.
There’s also great support from Ed Begley Jnr and Swoosie Kurtz as Berke’s Sex Therapy TV Show-hosting parents, who are ‘proud’ of him even when he inadvertently gets trapped in a bondage swing at a sex club just as cops raid the place. On the other hand, Martin Short’s extended cameo as the show’s producer is only intermittently funny - as with all Short’s roles, the longer he’s onscreen, the less funny he is.
In general then, this is watchable, but ultimately disappointing and suffers by comparison to the likes of Ten Things - the benchmark for teen comedies such as this. Also, you know you’re in trouble when the biggest laughs come from a Jack Russell terrier that shags everything in sight…