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Released in 1993, "The Crush" is about a 28 year-old writer, Nick (Cary Elwes), who moves to Seattle to work for a magazine. After moving into the guest house of the well-to-do Forresters their only child, 14 year old Adrienne (Alicia Silverstone), develops an increasingly unhealthy crush on him. Jennifer Rubin and Matthew Walker play Nick's girlfriend & boss while Kurtwood Smith and Gwynyth Walsh play Adrienne's parents and Amber Benson her neighbor.

This belongs to the Lethal Lolita sub-genre of drama/romance/thrillers. These movies always involve a hot teenager who utilizes her freshly bestowed womanly powers to seduce an older man and create havoc. "The Crush" is actually better than Stanley Kubrick's revered "Lolita" (1962), which was the first of its kind (at least the first to popularize the topic anyway). In the early 90s these kinds of movies made a comeback with 1992's "Poison Ivy" starring Drew Barrymore. "The Crush" isn't haunting and artsy like "Poison Ivy," but it's just as good and arguably marginally better. "Poison Ivy" has better style while "The Crush" is more straight-forward, sort of like 1987's "Fatal Attraction," but with a teenage antagonist.

Speaking of which, Alicia shines here in her cinematic debut. She was only almost-16 during filming, but easily commands attention throughout. Elwes is great as the protagonist with solid support from Rubin.

These types of attractions happen all the time in real life (a teenage girl developing a crush on an older guy) and it's the responsibility of the adult to erect and maintain proper boundaries so the situation doesn't spin out of control, like it does here. If the adult lets things go too far the girl will either be so devastated she becomes nigh suicidal, like in 1976's "Lifeguard," or she turns malevolently psycho.

To me "The Crush" would've worked better as a bittersweet coming of age drama, like the subplot of "Lifeguard," rather than a drama that morphs into thriller bordering on horror, like "Fatal Attraction." The first half is strong as a coming-of-age drama before transforming into the latter in the second half with its contrived thriller/horror mechanics. But they didn't ask me to write the script so I accept the movie as is. As a matter of fact, I feel it breaks the threshold of greatness for what it is.

The movie runs 89 minutes and was shot in Vancouver, British Columbia.

GRADE: A-

"Nick Eliot" (Cary Elwes) has just moved to Seattle and needs a place to stay prior to working as an investigative journalist for a magazine there. He settles on a semi-furnished guest house belonging to a married couple by the name of Cliff Forrester (Kurtwood Smith) and his wife "Liv" (Gwynyth Walsh). Also there is their 14-year-old daughter "Adrian" (Alicia Silverstone) who immediately develops a crush on Nick. Since he is twice her age he figures that her attraction to him is nothing serious. Big mistake. Anyway, as far as this film is concerned it pretty much follows the standard format of any number of similar movies made both before and after. However, what distinguishes this one is the performance of Alicia Silverstone in her very first film debut. Likewise, both Jennifer Rubin (as "Amy") and the aforementioned Cary Elwes also performed quite well too. Again, the story is pretty formulaic but even so I thought it was still enjoyable. Accordingly, I rate this movie as slightly above average.

This sexy thriller is very much entertaining for the *wrong* reasons. It's absurd, trashy, and utterly laughable. It does have a memorable antagonist in the form of young Alicia Silverstone, who plays Adrian Forrester, a Lolita-ish 14-year-old who develops a serious crush on Nick Eliot (Cary Elwes), the 20-something journalist renting a guest house from her parents (Kurtwood Smith, Gwynyth Walsh). Of course, nobody believes the older man when he protests that the crazed girl is the wrongdoer, and Nick finds his life continuously going awry as she creates one problem after another.

Written and directed by Alan Shapiro, this film doesn't exactly have the brightest characters. As a result, you never really root for Nick. Fortunately Silverstone, who'd previously made her name in Aerosmith rock videos, is a total hoot as this deranged gal who does some pretty nasty things to make her crush look bad. And things do indeed look very bad for Nick when she frames him for sexual assault. Elwes does what he can with his obtuse role, while Smith has some choice moments as the dad. Jennifer Rubin looks quite lovely as the photographer whom we know is more appropriate for Nick. And Amber Benson lends some solid support as Adrians' "friend" who tries to warn Nick about what she knows.

The movie *is* well paced and climaxes in one of the more priceless confrontation scenes that you're likely to see in this sort of thing. The ending is actually rather effective in its payoff of the Adrian character.

Silverstone may well have had a body double for the nude scenes, but it's still quite uncomfortable when remembering that the character being watched is a mere 14 years old.

All in all, "The Crush" is entertaining if exploitative trash, and should never ever be taken too seriously.

Seven out of 10.

In her film debut,the attractive Alicia Silverstone plays Darian Forrester,a mentally disturbed 14 year old girl who develops an unhealthy obsession with her neighbour,Nick Eliot (Cary Elwes)a baby faced blonde hair,blue eyed journalist who has no sexual interest in her.Silverstone shines in her role as the villain,making life hell for Nick,who wants nothing more than a friendship with the girl next door.Darian's desperate attempts to seduce the older man are unsuccessful,driving her deeper into her obsession and making her more psychotic.Silverstone's acting is superb,but her facial expressions are what is so convincing about her performance.Alicia superbly transforms herself from sweet and innocent into scary and psychotic giving new meaning to the phrase,'When she was good she was very very good,and when she was bad she was horrid'. The film has you on the edge of your seat as the plot unravels,and truths are discovered about sweet little Darian Forrester who is crazier than anyone thought.Her anger at Nick for leading her on goes to the extreme until she comes up with a plan she hopes will destroy his reputation.Nick is oblivious to Darian's feelings for him and believes its nothing more than a silly school girl crush that will pass until he discovers just how dangerous Darian really is.

Alicia's first big film is by far her best. She's gripping, believable and absolutely devilish in the role of little rich witch. Cary Elwes is completely at home in the role of victim as this vortex of terror swirls around him. It's impossible to watch this film without a chill running down your spine. Oh, if only the rest of us could inspire that kind of devotion from our admirers!