“Aw you so crazy!” high schooler Nicole (Kirsten Dunst) is a pampered congressman’s daughter determined to rebel against Dad (Bruce Davison) the authorities and anyone who attempts to stop her booze-drinking reckless-driving class-ditching ways. Football star Carlos (newcomer Jay Hernandez) spends long hours on the bus to school determined to get good grades and make it into pilots’ school at the Naval Academy. After they meet and sparks fly he struggles to keep his head and not lose sight of his goals while trying to calm Nicole’s drinking and drugging urges. But despite his best intentions Nicole’s all-consuming problems and Carlos’s own attraction to this wild child distract him from everything he’s worked so hard for to the dismay of his traditional family.
Despite his doe-eyed innocent demeanor and soft features(of the two clearly he’s the “beautiful”) Hernandez seems mature beyond his years fitting for the serious studious character he plays. His understated charm and good looks work for the camera and it’s easy to see why Dunst‘s Nicole falls for him. On the flip side Dunst‘s histrionics and melodramatic outrageousness drag this movie into TV movie-of-the-week territory. Hardly a scene goes by she’s not screaming shrieking or crying about her privileged life. That or trying to get Carlos in bed (in full view of Dad).
Not only is this movie slow and draggy we’re subjected to unbelievable and way-too-long scenes that would never ever happen. Like Malibu blondies Nicole (sans bra) and her half-dressed friend (with the bra but sans the shirt) stop off at an open-air market in East L.A. after a nighttime football game and wind up dirty dancing with the men hanging out by the taco stand. Are you kidding? There could be so much more done with the differences between the teens’ cultures and their families’ feelings but more time is spent showing the couple romping on the beach making out driving around making out flying a plane making out…we get it already. And the contrived let’s-tie-up-the-loose-ends-quick ending is an insult with the characters going against everything they’ve had you believing they believed in for two hours.
