Starring Elisha Cuthbert and Emile Hirsch. Rated 18A.

Matthew has a problem. He can't concentrate and he sleeps poorly. His ambitions have disappeared. His friendships are going downhill.

He's in love, or so he thinks. (Whether it is love or lust would constitute a film spoiler.) Whichever emotion has him in its grip, the grip itself is wincingly tight. And Matthew is not suffering these pangs on behalf of just any nubile, lithe, friendly 19-year-old girl next door whose very glance could restore the Leaning Tower of Pisa to ramrod verticality. No, it turns out that Danielle, the object of his devotion, is also a highly trained professional, skilled in the art(ifice) of lust As Seen on Television: a star of the silicone screen. Matthew doesn't know about that part.

Complications ensue.

The fact that her occupational history, if revealed, would cause any high-school senior a moment of consternation (rather than constant thanks to deity) is deftly explained by the film's presentation of Matthew as an exceedingly ambitious member of the Republican Youth: neatly groomed shirt-and-tie boy, active in student politics, tirelessly aspiring to public office. His intended future will indeed bring him into contact with whores aplenty, but dating an actual porn star would not be good for the résumé.

The manner by which Matthew and Danielle negotiate their incompatible pasts and improbable future is the subject of The Girl Next Door. Luke Greenfield, breaking from Rob Schneider vehicles, has directed a smart teen flick comparable to Fast Times at Ridgemont High and The Last American Virgin in its presentation of high school as a dungeon of sexual self-torture for everyone who isn't a lettered jock. Greenfield's camera catches (often in slow motion) the blossoming beauty and hopeless longing on display in school corridors, beer binges, hangouts, and lonely bedrooms, choreographed to a wall-to-wall score of anachronistic rock snippets.

Yes, but is it fun? Sure. Elisha Cuthbert and Emile Hirsch seem right for their characters, and each other. Timothy Olyphant nails the movie's showiest character, a tough porn producer named Kelly whose all-day grin merely intensifies his menace. The supporting players look good (or smarmy, or evil), and the plot takes side trips to unexpected territory before returning to a conventionally satisfying, er, conclusion.

It's not the perfect date film, but certainly a better first-date idea than a real porn movie. I think.