Elisha Cuthbert is just....perfect in The Girl Next Door
To set the tone here, I’m a 40 year old man that had never seen The Girl Next Door, but happened across it on HBO last week. Since that day, I've been completely smitten with the movie, and more specifically Elisha Cuthbert and her performance as Danielle. My experience has been rather profound and I really need an outlet to put it together.
I've never ever seen anything or anyone as achingly beautiful as Elisha Cuthbert is in this film. Words can't describe her. Hot. Stunning. Angelic. Pure. Sexy. Cute. Sweet. She manages to be all that in this film. A lot of men are absolutely suckers for beautiful women, and I can be guilty of that as much as anyone, but this is something different and it goes well beyond just saying she's a "10". As crazy hot as Elisha looks in this film, it's the character she has created in Danielle that is as hot as anything. There's the beauty of Elisha, and there's the pure perfection of Danielle and the amazing love story she makes you feel in this film. I keep using the word "feel" because that's what she makes me do...feel. All that from what's supposed to be an ex-porn star
I've got about every scene and line engrained in my head, but there are 2 that really stand out
The first night they meet and they are talking/drawing in the cafe. The way she looks at him, laughs, flirts. OMG. So stunning and sweet and cute.
The 5-10 seconds she's on the headphones. The moment she opens her eyes and sees him. She's so beautiful, I almost want to cry. I just love the way she looks at him.
Elisha seamlessly goes from hot and sexy in one scene to cute as a button the next. The first half she is assertive and kind of dominating of Matthew. The second half she becomes vulnerable and attached to him. Needful of him. She sells being truly in love with Matthew. Despite the film's creators giving very little depth to the character of Danielle, Elisha makes me "feel" her character. In each and every scene she's in, she's a total "10" but in a different way. I've never seen an actress/character look so stunningly beautiful in every scene, but in really different ways. She also does so many little things that get to me. When she kisses Matthew's hand at the prom...when she says "I would love to" when Matthew asks her to prom. The way she says "moral fibre" I feel her heart. I find it truly remarkable considering she was I think 20 or 21 at the time? And it's not like I'm sitting there just wanting to bone her. It's more like I want to cuddle with her and tell her everything will be ok and protect her forever.
Bottom line is that I can't get a 15 year old fictional character out of my head. It's like a drug right now. I feel great when I watch it, but afterwards I feel kind of empty and depressed. I get that it all sounds pretty juvenile and like I'm some 16 year old with a celebrity crush. That's the madness of it. What's kind of cool is that I know I am not alone in this. I've looked around various forums and seen a lot of other guys describe pretty similar feelings Elisha brings out in them from this film.
As I watched this for the first time, I just kept saying out loud "who in the world is this girl and how is she not a total "A" list superstar?" She just seemed to kind of make some poor choices for her movie career and never really totally made it, though I know she's still had a successful career. I watched a bit of The Ranch on Netflix to get a feel for her today. She's still gorgeous, but she wouldn't ever stand out to me. She looks like a lot of other Hollywood blondes. Even her Maxim days, as stunning as she was, don't elicit the same feelings that her role as Danielle does.
The movie, IMO, is very flawed, but what it did do well is put together a great cast, a great concept, and some really well written scenes. The Director also got the absolute best out of Elisha every scene. What was done poorly was the 2nd half being totally chaotic and silly. What's worse is Elisha kind of disappeared after the first half. Danielle was just kind of rooting Matthew on and a lot of scenes did not include her. I would have loved to have seen a longer courtship/romance take place. It felt kind of rushed. I think a longer and builder build up until what Matthew discovers as the truth would have really made it a bigger movie then it was. The movie showed us basically 2 days of them hanging out before the motel room scene so there was no real relationship yet.
Regardless, the movie is one of my all-time favorites for one reason only and that's Elisha Cuthbert. I know I will get over this ridiculous feeling soon enough, but for now I needed to vent about it. To Elisha Cuthbert, thank you for your remarkable performance and curse you for casting this spell over me and I believe many others. LOL You are a marvel, a once in a lifetime beauty, and an amazingly talented woman that has created a character that feels so real...