Rated PG-13 - Running Time: 1:25 - Released 3/9/01
GET OVER IT
Rated PG-13 - Running Time: 1:25 - Released 3/9/01
The latest entry in the recent fad of teen romances based on great
literature is Tommy O'Haver's Get Over It, written by R.
Lee Fleming Jr. and featuring the talents of up-and-coming teen
stars Kirsten Dunst (seen recently in Bring
It On) and Ben Foster (Liberty Heights). Fleming's
script follows a high school theatre production of William Shakespeare's
comedy A Midsummer Night's Dream, with the offstage action
running vaguely parallel to the story of the play. Fleming, whose
only previous big screen writing credit is She's
All That (based on Shaw's Pygmalion), and O'Haver,
who previously helmed Billy's Hollywood Screen Kiss (1998),
achieve moderate success on their first collaboration, which was
apparently pared down from its more racy, R-rated version in order
to score a more profitable PG-13. While this film does not do
anything extraordinary for its genre, it has its moments, and
Dunst and Foster are able to generate reasonable chemistry in
their utterly predictable situation.
There are two aspects of this film which do make it notable:
the liberal use of music (there is much incidental singing and
a few full-fledged musical numbers) and the inclusion of Martin
Short in a comic supporting role as the play's director. Short's
uncomfortably overconfident characterization, while sometimes
out of sync with the rest of the cast, adds needed levity to the
lovesick proceedings.
The film begins with Berke (Foster) being dumped by his lifelong
friend and recent lover Allison (Melissa Sagemiller), who has
found love elsewhere. The breakup scene is followed by a thoroughly
enjoyable rendition of Captain & Tennille's "Love Will
Keep Us Together," featuring an ever-growing troupe of singers
and dancers following Berke as he walks away from Allison's house
with a box full of his stuff. This number, at once amusing and
ironically bittersweet, is so much fun it threatens to make the
rest of the film look bad. As Berke is unable to "get over"
the loss of Allison, he decides to try to get her back any way
he can, including trying out for the school play in which she
is cast as Hermia, the object of two men's affection. Also playing
principal roles are Berke's platonic friend Kelly (Dunst), who
secretly harbors a crush on him, and Allison's new boyfriend Striker
(Shane West), a transfer student and member of a Back Street Boys-type
group. West's performance is easily the worst aspect of Get
Over It; his total lack of human sensibility is matched by
his truly awful fake British accent. As the rehearsals go on,
headed up by the mincing, never-satisfied Dr. Desmond Forrest-Oates
(Short), Kelly and Berke begin their excruciatingly slow but inevitable
journey toward mutual affection.
As he did with his freshman film, director O'Haver uses frequent lapses into fantasy to push the story along. While the high school students playing their parts are less than stellar actors, and Short's Forrest-Oates is little more than an amateur with delusions of grandeur, the sets and costumes are truly fabulous, so when we enter one of the many Midsummer-themed dream sequences, we are if nothing else treated to an eye-pleasing few minutes. Dunst's singing (if that's really her voice) is sweet and pleasant, and O'Haver's use of Elvis Costello's "Allison" played over the end credits is another excellent musical choice. Elements that don't work so well include a running gag about a dog that can't stop humping everything in sight and a side plot wherein Kelly's older brother tries to stop Burke from associating with her. But these are minor weak points in an otherwise reasonably satisfying (if not great) film. ***½