Our second entry in this series is not nearly as well known as the first. Get Over It is a high school romantic comedy that wasn’t a hit when it was released but has since achieved a certain cult status. It is not your typical high school comedy.
The Set-Up
At the start of the movie Berke Landers’ (Ben Foster) longtime girlfriend Allison (Melissa Sagemiller) breaks up with him. This sets in place the movie’s plot of Berke trying to “Get Over It”. His two best friends Felix (Colin Hanks) and Dennis (Sisqo) try to help him by taking him to dance and strip clubs, throwing parties at his house, and setting him up on dates. But he remains fixated on Allison. When she signs up for the school play with her new boyfriend Striker (Shane West), Berke signs up as well. He hopes to win her back. The problem is that the play is a musical re-imagining of a Midsummer’s Night Dream and he can’t sing, dance, or act. Because he’s so bad at musical theater he asks for help from Kelly (Kirsten Dunst), who is Felix’s little sister. Kelly likes Berke, so you can see where the story is going.
Why It’s Great
So, why is this my favorite high school comedy, despite its predictability? It has a great mixture of fantasy and reality, the characters are memorable, it has some great lines, and it’s just a plain fun movie.
There are musical numbers and dream sequences throughout the movie that comment on the goings-on. These scenes have a charm of doing a lot on a small budget. They also seem like accurate portrayals of what’s going in Berke’s head. The transitions between from reality to fantasy are very smooth as well.
The characters are broadly drawn, but they’re not the typical stereotypes encountered in most high school comedies. Berke isn’t a huge nerd or the captain of the football team; he’s just a normal guy. Allison isn’t the prom queen, just one of the more popular girls, who actually seems a little bland. That’s not to say all the characters are believable, it’s just nice that they’re not the typical cast.
Martin Short’s Dr. Desmond Forrest Oates is probably the most arch and memorable character. Oates is a pompous wannabe talent drama teacher that Short plays hilariously over-the-top. His comic timing is perfect. It’s really the last time Short had a great comedic performance in a film.
The chemistry between Foster and Dunst is nice and makes up for the fact that they don’t actually have much time to fall in love onscreen. Based on these performances you could see either one going on to be big romantic comedy leads, but they both chose a more dramatic path (or in Dunst’s case chose the wrong rom-coms to star in).
The reason it all hangs together is because the movie never takes itself too seriously. The actors are never particularly believable as high students and it never feels like a real school. They hang out in clubs and swimming pools matter-of-factly. It feels like a Hollywood version of high school. But if the school felt more realistic the slapstick, fantasy scenes, and Martin Short would seem out of place. Instead it all meshes together as an exaggeration of high school life.
Like all good comedies, there are number of quotable lines, mainly coming from Martin Short. All of my favorite ones are PG-13 though so I won’t repeat any here.
I wouldn’t consider this movie essential viewing. But if you’re in the mood for fun breakup movie or a good high school comedy this is my favorite one.