Mark Wahlberg honed his acting chops before that appearance in ‘Boogie Nights’ with this little thriller that surprisingly seemed to escape a lot
of people’s attention on release, but has since gained quite a cult
following among teens, as well as fans of Reese Witherspoon and Mark
Wahlberg, eager to see the infamous orgasm on a roller coaster scene.
When 16 year old Nicole Walker meets David, he seems a little too perfect. Offering her the care and attention she craves from her ‘Daddy’ she falls
head over heels in love with him. Unfortunately for Nicole his bad points
far outweigh his good points.
The film is basically a teen version of ‘Fatal Attraction’ obviously
dreamt up to make girls think twice about going all the way. Despite a
great cast it feels terribly like a TV movie of the week.
Reese Witherspoon has to be admired for her choice of roles, as she has consistently turned down most of the roles her acting peers went on to
tackle, in a bid to ensure that she would be taken seriously and it has so
far paid off, but I was shocked to see her play such a little slut!!
Mark Wahlberg does well as a psycho but had this annoying technique of using his voice far too much to convey emotion, a little more subtlety
would have been welcome.
Alyssa Milano was a ‘dirrty ho’ and Reese Witherspoon’s Nicole was pretty stupid in some respects, but the film is still quite good.
The film is most successful when we finally get to the ‘Straw Dogs’ homage and the cast are given some real work to do.
OVERALL SUMMARY
If you haven’t seen this you should check it out, it won’t win any Oscars
but it’s a decent enough effort from a cast and crew that have all gone on
to great success.
