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It seems as if the new teenage rite of passage involves
psychological disorder. You have to know someone who is
suffering; who is out of control. Or you have to be one of
these people yourself. I'm not sure if "crazy/beautiful"
glorifies this trend, or offers a safe surrogate.
The
story is about Nicole, a wild, troubled congressman's daughter.
She falls for Carlos, who is from the wrong side of the tracks but
has his life heading full-steam in the right direction. She
acts out a lot and he loves her because she shows him how to be
free. Everyone worries that she will derail his chances at
getting into the Naval Academy. The couple deals with pressures
stemming from their different lifestyles, and her issues.
"crazy/beautiful" handles psychological trouble, but not
as well as "Girl, Interrupted". It deals with
teenage suicide, but not as effectively as, say, "Pump
Up The Volume". Inter-racial dating is present, but
maybe not as realistically depicted as in even "Save the Last
Dance". Nicole has an evil stepmother, but she is no
Cinderella.
Surely, "crazy/beautiful"
is aimed at teenagers, but it is not of the "American
Pie" flavor. It is more serious and has a strong social
conscience. It just needed to find a balance between all of
its moral causes.
This movie shoots high at a lot of
themes, but misses fully in developing any of them. If not for
some of the nice cinematography, this would have been better as a
made-for-TV movie of the week. The early scenes, when Nicole
is out of control, are pretty annoying to watch. She's
drunk, she's loud, she says almost nothing intelligent or funny,
and Carlos falls hard. Good thing Kirsten Dunst embodies
some kind of inherent likeability. Otherwise, if this was
indeed a TV movie, I surely would have changed the channel.
-- Liz
( 2 out of 4 pops )
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