The issues in question in Crazy/Beautiful are a combination of class struggles, racial struggles, and family struggles, all brought to a head in the newly begun relationship between Carlos Nunez (Hernandez) and Nicole Oakley (Dunst). Nicole, a rich, spoiled white girl and daughter of Congressman Tom Oakley (Bruce Davison), doesn't seem quite the right girl for Carlos, a poor, hardworking Latino boy with aspirations of entering the Naval Academy, but the two fall instantly in love nonetheless. But soon Nicole's wild ways threaten to derail Carlos's life, and Nicole's father recognizes the familiar sequence of events -- and so he offers Carlos a sponsorship into Annapolis on the condition that Carlos will stay away from Nicole.

      In the end, it turns out to be a fairly novel conflict -- it's not the same old father-distrusts-daughter's-boyfriend conundrum. But director John Stockwell (1987's Under Cover) is late in getting his movie there, and subsequently neither he nor debut screenwriters Phil Hay and Matt Manfredi can reap the benefits. The real substance of the movie consists of the first half-hour and the last half-hour, and the forty-five minutes in between are extraneous but "necessary" scenes to show the development of Nicole and Carlos's relationship.

      Which might be fine in itself if it contributed to the end result somehow, but it doesn't. Credit Kirsten Dunst with being able to pull off the "wild girl" act credibly, especially since she's known for a number of rather forgettable teen films in which she plays sweeter, more innocent characters. Opposite her, Jay Hernandez (MTV's "Undressed") offers solid support, and thus unlike many teen films, there's not a glaring imbalance between the two leads. (Furthermore, Bruce Davison, in the chief supporting role, offers up a grounding point for the movie that many teen films don't have -- it's a bit of a shame his character wasn't more prominent, since he ended up figuring such a large role in the scheme of things.)

      The chemistry between Dunst and Hernandez is questionable -- it feels more sterile than genuine -- and sometimes there's even a question of why somebody like Carlos should fall for somebody like Nicole. The characters are complete opposites, and while that feeds the teenage target audience's hunger for a romance-against-all-odds, it doesn't make a lot of sense. There are a few scenes which attempt to explain the pair's affinity for one another, but really, there's nothing to justify the relationship.

      That won't matter to the typical teen audience, though, because said audience isn't the most discriminating. In that sense the movie fails to be extraordinary because it plays to the standard Hollywood motive of simply selling movie tickets, and although its interracial setup is intriguing, it doesn't really push the envelope. Besides which, it isn't mentioned that often, except in a handful of scenes that don't add to the movie or its characters. (Nicole mentions that her father would be proud of her for dating a Latino boy, but such sentiments are never echoed by Nicole's father or expanded on later in the movie -- if anything, Nicole's father is rendered completely uncomfortable by the relationship.) Crazy/Beautiful isn't your average teen movie, but it's not exactly an outstanding one, either.

      But weighty drama or social commentary probably shouldn't be expected from Crazy/Beautiful, mostly because it's an amateurish effort aside from the participation of Kirsten Dunst. Director Stockwell hasn't been behind the helm in over a decade, and the script was penned by a pair of rookies -- which explains why the second act drags so much. When the audience should just be getting into the movie, Stockwell and company turn them off. The emotional impact of the third act comes close to evening things out, but it's a classic case of too little too late, and so viewers are likely to leave Crazy/Beautiful with an awkward feeling in their stomachs and a bad taste in their mouths.

Craig Roush, 2001