“Never Been Kissed” is a romantic comedy starring Drew Barrymore as Josi Gellar, a young woman who’s intelligent and studious and good at her job . . . but not very stylish or “with it.” She doesn’t pay any attention to her clothes or her hair, just her work for the newspaper.
When the idea strikes to send a journalist into the local high school to investigate what life is really like for today’s youth, Josi is chosen to be the one. At twenty-five, she still looks young. She registers for high school, but she feels really dumb about the whole assignment—she was a real nerd in high school, and the idea of going back to that environment just isn’t her idea of fun.
Her first couple of days are filled with disaster. The cool girls make fun of her, the cool guys make fun of her—only the nerds show any compassion. She tries to make herself look hip and trendy, but all her efforts fail. At least one person in the school takes her seriously—her English teacher, Sam Coulson (Michael Vartan).
Seeing that his sister is totally bombing, Rob (David Arquette) decides to come help Josi out. He enrolls as a student too, and spends his time spreading wild stories about Josi, claiming to be a student from her old school. Soon her popularity is soaring.
As she gathers the information she wants for the newspaper article, she finds herself attracted to Mr. Coulson, and he’s intrigued by this quirky girl who never seems to know what to do with herself. He wishes he could get to know her better, but he believes she’s only seventeen, and his student. Clearly off limits.
When Josi reveals who she really is, a twenty-five-year-old newspaper reporter, his feelings are deeply hurt. He was attracted to Josi’s integrity, and now, learning that she’s not who she says she was, makes him doubt everything he believed about her. But when she makes a really gutsy move to win him back, it all goes in her favor.
I enjoyed this movie a lot. The story was fun, Michael Vartan is very nice-looking, and there are some great moments of comedy throughout the film. On the other side of the equation, there is some language and one scene in sex education class where they’re trying to put condoms on bananas. (Whatever.) Consequently, I wouldn’t recommend this PG-13 film for children or young teens. As an adult, however, I liked it a lot. And as a bit of movie trivia for you, this film is loosely based on the old classic, “The Major and the Minor.”
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