FilmBlather.com

Get Over It, the latest teen comedy out in theaters, gets off to a brilliant start and goes downhill from there. It begins with a scene that breaks the mold and then breaks our hearts by succumbing to the formula after all. What a shame. If ever there was a genre that needed to be revitalized, it's this one, but the movie loses its heart and becomes just another potential cash cow. I wanted so badly to like it.

Ben Foster, so interesting in Liberty Heights, plays Berke Landers, a high-schooler who has just been dumped by his long-time girlfriend. The film's ingenious first sequence, which plays over the opening credit, is an uninterrupted shot of Berke walking sullenly home while singer Vitamin C, random neighbors, and finally a whole brass band follow behind him singing an ironically peppy pop song. My eyes brightened; I sat up in my chair. The movie grabbed my attention and I was ready to be impressed.

Alas, the originality pretty much ended there. Berke falls for his best friend's sister Kelly (Kirsten Dunst) who, for some reason, has the hots for Striker, a new student who happened to be a Scottish pop star (Shane West). Being named Striker he is, of course, a jerk. To be closer to Kelly, Berke joins the school play, a revisionist musical version of A Midsummer Night's Dream, written by the school's music teacher and dejected playwright Dr. Desmond Forrest Oates (Martin Short).

This is, you may have noticed, another pseudo-adaptation of a Shakespeare play geared toward the teen audience. 10 Things I Hate About You, "based" on The Taming of the Shrew at least had some funny and touching character moments, even if it didn't offer much of an insight into the application of Shakespeare to modern day life. Get Over It, on the other hand, never takes off. It strains too hard for laughs, as in the scene when Berke walks onto a basketball court with no pants on, and doesn't get them as often as it would like.

The central romance, then, between Berke and Kelly, is diluted by the film's desperation; it tries for naturalism with their relationship, but completely abandons it when just about anything else is concerned. Only the most skilled of screenwriters can have it both ways and Get Over It fails quite miserably here.

But perhaps the biggest surprise is how utterly boring the stars are. Foster was terrific in the little-seen Liberty Heights, and this follow-up is utterly inadequate. His performance consist of vacant stares as chaos breaks out around him; it's a mostly reactionary role, yes, but I wish he would at least react. Even more shocking is Kirsten Dunst, who I didn't think could be dull in any circumstances, but accomplishes exactly that here. To maintain my illusion, I will conclude that it's the fault of the script.

It is possible, still, to make an interesting teen comedy. I have high hopes for American Pie 2. Get Over It should have stayed in the spirit of its first scene. It loses its exuberance, its originality and most of its humor. The movie is short, watchable, and altogether serviceable. But that's not enough.