SLEEPOVER

REVIEWED BY CARISSA HORTON

Our rating: 3 out of 5

Because of: sensuality, thematic elements

Rated:

It's the end of the school year and Julie (Alexa Vega) can hardly wait to be free, in spite of her worries about going to high school next year and without her best friend Hannah (Mika Boorem), who's moving to another city. So what do fourteen-year-old girls do to celebrate their final year in Junior High? They plan a sleepover, of course. And it was intended to be just a sleepover, with the regular loud music, dancing in high heels with absurd costumes, and painting each other's toenails. Perhaps Julie's mom (Jane Lynch) would have been wise to stay home for the party, rather than spending time with her friends. You give Julie an inch and she walks all over you.

With the arrival of Stacie (Sara Paxton), a used-to-be best friend, the night goes completely haywire. Stacie has planned a scavenger hunt, mostly to prove that Julie will always be the loser in their crowd. So what does Julie do? Naturally she agrees to find or do the ridiculous things on the list, which include going on a date with an older man in a bar, switching clothes on a mannequin and of all things stealing a pair of boxer shorts from highschooler Steve (Sean Faris), who's been Julie's crush since kindergarten. Throw in a couple of insane skateboarders from Junior High, along with Julie's and her threesome of friends, and you're in for a wild ride. Whether it's almost getting arrested, or sneaking into a boy's house, Julie just can not say no and stand by it. Thank goodness her brother Ren (Sam Huntington) is playing backup at home, or she would have been caught long before the end.

I'm trying to think of something encouraging to say about this movie. The friendships were impressive, especially when Julie and Hannah take a slightly overweight girl under their wing out of kindness. Julie and her brother don't exactly have the best of relationships since he's living at home again rather than going to college. By the end, they seem to have bonded because he helped her break their parents' rules. But apart from these very small things, I was disappointed and disturbed by the overall message. Julie's mother has very strict rules about slumber parties, no leaving the house being the largest rule, and they broke that one immediately. Throughout the film Julie acts as if her parents are tromping on her freedom by denying her some pleasures, but frankly, I agree with the parents. Rules are there for a reason. To protect, not to inhibit. Julie never does grasp that concept and her parents don't enforce punishment when she's caught, but are entirely forgiving when Julie should have at least been grounded for her actions. Than again, her mother was also out partying at the very same bar Julie went to, so there really isn't much in the way of a good role model there. Her dad doesn't even realize Julie and her friends are gone, and that I have a problem with. I can guarantee that if I'd sneaked out of the house with my friends when I was a tween, my folks would have noticed.

And now we come into actual content, rather than the psychological issue. Julie wears a very tight, rather skimpy red dress throughout most of the movie. And it turns out that the man she was supposed to meet at the bar is in fact one of Julie's teachers, but does he express horror that she's even there? No, he does not, but indulges the scavenger hunt by buying her and Hannah a drink, albeit ginger ale. I was quite horrified by one of the names of an alcoholic concoction. "Sex on the Beach" is no appropriate name for anything, and even less so when used by a fourteen-year-old girl. Julie breaks into Steve's house in a successful attempt to snatch a pair of his boxer shorts. In essence, she's forced to hide in his shower while he strips down to his birthday suit right in front of her. He has no clue that she's there, but that doesn't excuse her watching him. No nudity, just the legs and back, but totally inappropriate for a PG film geared toward tween girls. One of the first scenes with Stacie involves her and boyfriend Todd (Thad Luckinbill) on what would probably be termed "Make-Out Point." He obviously wants to go farther than she's willing and very nearly forces himself on her. We're talking a fourteen-year-old girl here, dating a guy in high school, at least three years older than her. No language that I noticed, but it's possible there were some slang terms that I'm not familiar with and I wouldn't be a bit surprised if that were the case.

Was the movie cute? Yes, it was in many ways, but the dangers for outweigh the advantages. Stacie does not undergo a change of heart like I had hoped, but remains her normal shrewish self. Neither does Julie repent of her escapade. Rather she confesses when her mother asks her point-blank for the truth and produces a scarf Julie lost at the bar. Police officers and security guards are mocked by Julie and her friends on a constant basis, when in truth, the officer who's supposed to look and behave like an idiot is in the right. Steve only notices Julie after he sees her skateboarding by in her fancy red dress with bare feet. That's hardly the reason I would want for a boy to like me. Julie is exceedingly selfish. All her reasons for wanting to succeed in the new school are for the worldly desire of popularity. The acting was relatively good, especially from Alexa and Mika, but than Alexa is already known as a decent actor from the Spy Kids flicks and Follow the Stars Home. But on the whole, Sleepover was a disappointment. It could have been so much more with fulfilling roles for the actors and a decent moral lesson to be learned by our young ladies. Instead, they go away learning almost nothing at all.

My advice, watch New York Minute with the Olsen twins or The Princess Diaries starring Anne Hathaway. At least semi-valuable lessons are learned in those tween films, with repaired relationships and some other obvious virtues rather than an emotionally muddled mess. Leave Sleepover on the rental store shelf.

© www.charitysplace.com - all rights reserved.