LOS ANGELES (Top40 Charts) - So we know she's not a girl, not yet a woman, but how about a movie star?
Reigning Queen of Pop Britney Spears actually holds her own in Crossroads, her film debut, which hits theaters nationwide on Friday (Feb. 15). Although the movie is essentially an unexceptional coming-of-age chick flick, Spears and her co-stars manage to have a genuinely good time and bring the audience along for at least one leg of the ride.
Spears convincingly plays the innocent act as Georgia virgin Lucy, the high school valedictorian (it's a movie, remember?) who's trying to come to terms with growing into womanhood after graduation. On a quest to find the mother who abandoned her as a child (played by Sex and the City's Kim Cattrall, who really could pass for Spears' mom), Lucy catches a cross-country ride toward Los Angeles with two childhood friends (the delightful Taryn Manning and Zo� Saldana) and a misunderstood ex-con (Anson Mount), who doubles as her love interest.
While the gaggle of girlfriends is busy bonding over tales of teen pregnancy (Manning's character is knocked up), we discover mystery man Mount may be not so bad after all, especially when he woos Lucy by setting some of her poetry to music. Depending on how far out of their teens viewers are, these scenes come off as either incredibly tender or painfully hokey. But after a botched pink-bra-and-pantied attempt at losing her virginity earlier in the film that's sure to delight the guys in the audience, you can bet she gets it right this time.
The film could be called the celluloid equivalent of Spears' music, offering, like, style over substance. Ever attentive to pop fans' attention spans, it even features two mini-music videos. One comes during an unexpected stop in New Orleans, where Lucy & Co. enter a karaoke contest to raise the cash to fix their car. At last, Lucy gets a makeover and goes from conservative good-girl to buff, belly-baring Britney Spears so she can belt out a cringe-inducing rendition of Joan Jett's "I Love Rock 'n' Roll" (which appears on her latest album, Britney). If you're not already sick of Spears' current hit, "I'm Not a Girl, Not Yet a Woman," you will be by the end of the flick and can plan to skip the encore performance that runs with the credits.
Skip the flick if you're a cynical pop-music hater, but if there's a younger Spears fan in your life, chances are he or she will have a good time watching and singing along to Crossroads. Remember: Spears can't lip-sync her lines in this one.
