Here's the best high-concept casting idea in some time: Drew Barrymore as a 25-year-old reporter who happens to be a virgin and who goes undercover as a high school student.
The mind boggles - a 25-year-old virgin, a virgin reporter (there's sci-fi) and Barrymore as a virgin. But it's true, Never Been Kissed opens April 9.
This is not to question the virtue of young Ms. Barrymore, but, hey, we've read the stories and we saw the Letterman table dance so this does not seem like reckless speculation.
Barrymore's growing audience will likely have no trouble accepting her as a virgin. After all, not so long ago, the notion that Barrymore could play demure, sweet and utterly adorable young women was an incredible notion. After The Wedding Singer, Ever After, in which she played Cinderella, and Home Fries (available on video this week), it has become her specialty.
Home Fries is an odd, slightly dark comedy that didn't generate much interest from moviegoers. But it featured Barrymore as another almost angelic character - this one with a mass of red, Shirley-Temple-like ringlets. Barrymore plays a pregnant young woman who is burned by her married, older lover and gets involved with his family. No more should be said, but Home Fries is for die-hard Drew fans only. The film isn't funny or wicked enough to be a truly satisfying dark comedy, and it lacks the charm of a romantic comedy.
The most interesting part of the film is to watch Barrymore's continuing evolution as a film actor - from child star to on-screen vixen to ingenue. Consider where she started:
E.T.: THE EXTRA-TERRESTRIAL (1982): Steven Spielberg's beloved fantasy wasn't Barrymore's film debut - that was 1980's Altered States - but you want to talk sweet? Drew the tyke and E.T. were an adorable team.
IRRECONCILABLE DIFFERENCES ('84): A 10-year-old girl sues her parents for divorce for neglecting her. It's a better film than you would think considering the parents are played by Ryan O'Neal and Shelley Long.
FIRESTARTER ('84): A young girl can - and does - set fires. Based on a Stephen King novel, Barrymore is, of course, the young girl and heads an incredible cast including George C. Scott, Martin Sheen, Art Carney and Louis Fletcher.
A CONSPIRACY OF LOVE ('87): Barrymore was getting to an awkward age and wasn't quite so cute. The result was all that was available for her was made-for-TV dreck like this soap opera.
POISON IVY ('92): The young vixen phase of Barrymore's career begins with a career-reviving performance as a trailer-trash femme fatale who really gets to Tom Skerritt.
THE AMY FISHER STORY ('93): The Drew Barrymore version of the Amy Fisher/Joey Buttafuoco saga was the highest rated of three films about the sensational scandal in which the Long Island Lolita shot her older lover's wife. It may have been Grade-A trash, but it didn't do Barrymore's career any harm.
BOYS ON THE SIDE ('94): The film, about a mismatched trio on a road trip may be a Thelma and Louise ripoff, but it proved that Barrymore could hold her own with seasoned film pros like Whoopi Goldberg and Mary Louise Parker.
SCREAM ('96): Barrymore may have exited the film in the first scene, but it didn't do her career any harm to show up in this huge hit, one credited with reviving the horror film - or establishing the ironic horror genre.
THE WEDDING SINGER ('98): Barrymore is nothing short of adorable as a waitress hung up on singer Adam Sandler, and it doesn't hurt that the movie was a pleasant surprise. Don't rent Home Fries, try this one if you haven't seen it and you need a fix of Drew.
More Artists
