3031. Get Over It (2001)

Starring: Ben Foster, Kirsten Dunst, Melissa Sagemiller

Director: Tommy O’Haver

Running Time: 87 mins

Get Over It is an American film about a high school senior whose girlfriend unexpectedly breaks up with him, so he sets about trying to win her back by any means possible.

Look, I know this isn’t high cinematic art. It’s not even the best teen comedy of its day, when there were millions of them about. However, Get Over It was inexplicably one of the most enjoyable movies I’ve seen in a while. It’s pretty stupid and very predictable, but it made me laugh again and again, and surely that’s the most important thing.

The late ’90s and early ’00s was a sort of ‘golden age’ for these high school comedies. From American Pie to 10 Things I Hate About You and even Not Another Teen Movie, the genre was everywhere, but few really stood out as genuinely good films.

Of them all, 10 Things I Hate About You is by far the best – a modernisation of Shakespeare’s tale The Taming Of The Shrew. And it’s from that film that Get Over It takes most inspiration, telling an updated tale of A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

Get Over It is a little more on the nose with its Shakespearean connection, as the story revolves around the school stage production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. It doesn’t really have a gripping screenplay that expertly plays off the original story, and for the most part, Get Over It does feel more like another generic teen comedy.

It lacks the challenging emotion of the central romance in 10 Things I Hate About You, taking a very predictable path to a very predictable ending. However, while it isn’t a masterpiece of storytelling, Get Over It is full of laughs from start to finish.

I don’t know why, but I was laughing my socks off all the way through this movie. It’s a well-paced and light-hearted film that doesn’t turn to the overly crass humour of American Pie, but the comedy is far from ingenious.

However, there’s something about the film’s oddly zany energy that makes it immensely likeable, and its jokes all the more fun to laugh at. Meanwhile, a lot of the performances – particularly those from Ben Foster and Kirsten Dunst – are delightful.

As a result, I found so much to enjoy about Get Over It. Sure, it’s not a masterpiece of cinema, but with such entertaining comedic energy and delightful performances, it’s a light-hearted teen comedy that made me laugh and smile all the way through. So, that’s why I’m giving it a 7.5 overall.