In 1990s fans of Beverly Hills, 92100 and similar teen-oriented television series or films began to notice that their favourite teen character are played by actors in late twenties or even thirties. This annoying trend was actually used as basic concept for the plot of Never Been Kissed, 1999 romantic comedy directed by Raja Gosnell.
Protagonist, played by Drew Barrymore, is Josie Geller, 25-year old copy editor for Chicago Sun-Times. Rigfort (played by Gary Marshall), her boss, gets an idea that the paper should write articles about how teenagers really live and presumably from their perspective. Josie is tasked to impersonate teenager and use her cover to enrol in high school. She reluctantly agrees and her return to high school brings back bad memories of times when she was ignored or laughed at. The only persons that seem to treat new student well are group of school geeks led by Aldys (played by Leelee Sobieski). In order to reach some kind of popularity, Josie recruits her brother Rob (played by David Arquette) who, unlike her, used to be popular jock while in high school. He also impersonates teenager in joins high school, hoping to relive some of his old sports glory. In the meantime, Josie is troubled with romantic feelings she began to experience in presence of her English teacher Sam Coulson (played by Michael Vartan).
Almost all creative energy for Never Been Kissed was spent on basic concept, apparently leaving nothing for the rest of film, which became burdened with cliches. It seems that scriptwriters Abby Kohn and Marc Silverstein were aware of some of those issues, so they took one precautionary measure by having part of the plot take place in Chicago Sun-Times newsroom, apparently hoping to win favour of that newspaper’s influential critic Roger Ebert. That apparently worked and Ebert, unlike most of his colleagues, greeted the film favourably and the audience, judging by decent box office, accepted his verdict. The audience, especially those segments that aren’t big fans of Drew Barrymore or aren’t too keen about teen or romantic comedies, might find Never Been Kissed to be unbearable. Script doesn’t establish proper balance between journalistic and “regular” teen comedy. Quality of humour is very poor and director Raja Gosnell has serious issues with pacing, making the film look longer than it actually is. But the worst thing comes at the finale that looks like a parody of romantic comedies until the moment when audience realises that this film authors played it straight. While Drew Barrymore does have a charm and talent, it isn’t enough for Never Been Kissed to become watchable. Those willing to see how the concept of adult persons impersonating teenagers might be effective might be reminded of famous Internet meme featuring Steve Buscemi.
RATING: 2/10 (-)
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