Whirly Girl (DVD Review)

19 Mar, 2006 By: Brendan Howard

Whirly Girl

Prebook 4/11/06; Street 5/2/06
Universal/Screen Media
Romantic Comedy
$19.98 DVD
Rated ‘R' for sexuality and language.
Stars Monet Mazur, Julian Morris.

Many thought Igby Goes Down was too dark. Like Holden Caulfield from Catcher in the Rye, main character Igby (Kieran Culkin) really does let his life go down the drain in search of meaning in his life and the love of a girl who's no good for him (Claire Danes).

In Whirly Girl, teenage British prep student James (played by cute up-and-comer Morris) finds himself involved with a late-twenties mystery woman (Mazur) who frequents prep-school and college parties as a dancer who “blows people away.” She's got an obsessive stalker, kleptomaniac and partying tendencies, and is sad and a bit self-destructive. But James is convinced he can save her. He keeps calling his advisor back at school to keep himself out of trouble as he stays in the big city with her. Things get crazy, though, and his honorable love for Whirly Girl perches him on the edge of expulsion. Of course, only a last-minute speech about his loyalty and good deeds from his paramour can keep him in good stead.

In the end, she heads off to fulfill her wanderlust, but the last scene makes it seem that a reunion could happen.

Selling Points: The story is cliché, Mazur's acting is sketchy, and there are some slow parts. Still, Whirly Girl will make for a decent girls-night-out flick, a cute date film or a way for lonely teens to imagine someday they might have a chance with the Whirly Girl. The alternative rock soundtrack is pretty cool, too.