Whirlygirl

Its not a big production and we could see more nudity or more romantic scenes, but it is worth to see.

The story of a college boy with strong values such as responsibility who falls in love with a whirly girl. The girl made him forget the consequences and start doing some risky things for her, and actually his attitude changed this girls life who changed her meaningless live and finally found something worth in her life.

It's mainly a romantic story puts the reason and the principles of this boy against his feelings.

I really enjoyed.

The movie adopts the classic story of a good boy falling for the bad girl and turning her around from her misguided life. The action is very similar to the movie "The Girl Next Door", doesn't have many strong differences. Anyway it's still a fun-to-watch movie.

On a larger description, this young guy who's studying very hard on a good university falls for a strip dancer when she comes to dance for their little party and kisses him (stealing his watch in the same time). He goes in New York to find her to get his watch back and from from them on she drags him trough many adventures which almost cause him to be expelled out of the university. I won't mention the end not to spoil the movie experience for those who read my comment, but I'll say this, he manages to turn her around but it happens the other way around also. Watch it, it's not a waste of time.

Whirlygirl is one of those comedies that's greatly hurt by its marketing and its own DVD cover, which makes it look like another senseless, vulgarian comedy that was destined to go straight to the bargain bins of Wal-Mart. It's very similar in story and in general to the underrated film The Girl Next Door in 2004, which was greatly hurt by a marketing campaign that wanted to exploit the perceived sexiness rather than the touching human elements that lied within. Whirlygirl, on the other hand, tackles the heartbreaking idea of falling in love with someone who is difficult or impossible to be in love with, a concept that few films dare explore in a world where mawkish, overblown romance films are so beloved.

The film revolves around James Edwards (Julian Morris), a student at the prestigious Walden Academy, an all male prep school. Due to campus fun being depressingly minimal, James's friend Raol (J.A.Q.) contacts a mysterious woman known as "The Whirlygirl" (Monet Muzur), a fabled exotic dancer that travels to all-male schools to put on a show at fraternities. When she arrives at Walden, the boys are instantly smitten with the woman, as she makes each one of them feel like they're the perfect man at various times during her performance. Before she concludes her show, she passionately kisses James and then takes off in a flash.

The next morning, James realizes his late father's watch is missing and believes the only person who could've realistically taken it was The Whirlygirl. He calls a cab and tracks down her home with the help of the driver before confronting her accordingly. The Whirlygirl, who's real name is Alice, winds up revealing to James that she's a conwoman as well as an erotic dancer, living alone in a small loft, estranged from her mother and performing at fraternities and tending to the needs of a sugar daddy for some stable sense of income. While it may not be a glamorous life, it's one she's content with. James can't fathom why Alice, a beautiful and clearly street-smart young woman, would put herself through these kinds of terrible situations, and Alice can't fathom why James, after what she did and how her life looks at the moment, would still gradually push closer towards her.

The fact that James falls in love with Alice despite her unattractive features makes this a messy situation all around, and writer Pete McCormack doesn't sugarcoat the sadness at hand. James is a young man, clearly kept in line by his academics and the drudgery of constantly doing the right thing, with no woman in his life to speak of until The Whirlygirl comes along and gives him a reason to be excited. In addition, director Jim Wilson wisely doesn't make the first kiss between The Whirlygirl and James too cinematic or too romantic; it's the kind of kiss that we can see makes the two parties feel something, but not in the overblown way films tend to dramatize that special kiss. It's a beautifully understated tactic.

Furthermore, McCormack explores the real sadness of loving someone who is in capable or momentarily unable to love the other person back. James isn't a stupid character; he knows that Alice dances and strips for a living, lives a life predominately on her own, and places herself in dangerous situations regularly; the beautiful thing, however, is that he still tries to be there for her when she's being impossible to love. Whether she's passing out because of the pills she took or being put in grave danger at a frat party, James watches over her and desperately tries to save her from herself because he knows the kind of woman she really is - a woman that's above all that she puts herself through. He desperately wants things to work between the two, in addition to making an attempt to understand why Alice puts herself in the situations that she does when she's so much brighter than that.

If it's not obvious already, Whirlygirl strikes a very personal chord with me. I've lived through an experience similar to Jim's and still am affected by it to this day. This film explores the idea of impossible love with a tender focus and with much more respect for its characters than its narrow-minded, pandering DVD cover suggests. Of course, there are elements of incredulity in the characters' actions, such as the hearing at Walden Academy near the end, but there is an unshakable sincerity to the characters here that few comedies are willing to explore. Most of them get too wrapped up in the idea of being vulgar and crass, checking the heart and wit at the door. Here is a comedy that has ample amounts of humor, serious amounts of sadness and real-world troubles, and an ending that comes so, so very close to discarding all of that but, instead, takes a quietly tragic route. There's something so humbly subversive about this film that it makes you wish more comedies were this wise and sensitive.

Starring: Julian Morris, Monet Muzur, and J.A.Q.. Directed by: Jim Wilson.

It's been done before, and done before better. A year ago The Girl Next Door had most of the same concepts, themes and lessons. Studious boy meets wild girl, boy breaks the rules for the first time, girl straitens her life for the first time, they fall in love, and then what? However, the amateur writer (McCormack) should have remembered to add a climax, or even a third act. It was one of those movies that just seemed to be, "Is this the conclusion?" Debuting in his first American film, said UK actor Julian Moris, gave a realistic, well done performance. Whirly Girl Monet Mazur is beautiful; unfortunately, less could be said about her acting. Profanity and nudity may be an issue for ratings, there is mild nudity during the sex scenes and what kind of language would you expect from 18-year-old boys?

Nothing bad could be said about the image or audio quality. Then again, nothing new in the world of aesthetics was brought to the picture either, nor should have been. It's a typical 'on location' picture. The musical score is mostly combined with a mix of pop and rock hits, appropriate for the scenes but soon to be outdated.

Don't get the wrong impression I did enjoy the picture. It was as good as average for its genre and worth seeing once. It repeats some cut and paste storyline; however, Whirly Girl is cute, funny, and entertaining in its own. The scenes at the boarding school with the horny teenage boys are hilarious and very tangible for any young adult male. This picture serves the appetite of its young adult (17-25) target audience.

Review by, Darren R. Brandl

Whirlygirl suffers primarily from a bad script and poor direction. The script lacks the closure of a third act; we are left hanging thinking there needed to be something more. There is a rescuer scene which I guess the director thought would be a climax but the movie has an episodic feel to it.

This film is based on a true story. Well the scriptwriter should have embellished it since true stories do not make compelling films. The lead actor Julian Morris does a decent job with the material but the rest of the cast performances are flat. In fact one of the students, who was acting like he was just waking up had a believability level of zero. Speaking of Morris, I had just watched him in Cry Wolf where he also plays a prep school student and his character seems to have walked out of that slasher movie into this one. Slasher movies can get by without any character development but a film like Whirlygirl requires it.

Hats off to DP Christo Bakalov for delivering some great images to such a hollow story.