Never Been Kissed

A 25-year-old copy editor for the Chicago Sun-Times (Drew Barrymore) goes undercover as a high school student, but the experience only brings on the nerdy adolescent insecurity that plagued her own high school years. The idea has promise—if only writers Abby Kohn and Marc Silverstein had known anything about real life. Instead, the script is recycled from spare parts of Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Carrie, Pretty in Pink and Some Kind of Wonderful, and director Raja Gosnell and the cast keep tripping helplessly over all the cornball clichés. Barrymore is maturing into an actress of consequence, and her wistful vulnerability bubbles up at times to sustain her here, but she deserves better than formula drivel like this.