David Boreanaz

YOU’VE HEARD OF THE TRAINING BRA ... WELL, THESE GIRLS HAVE FOUND THE TRAINING MAN

We think we’ve truly achieved adulthood somewhere in our teens, when we start trying on “mature” behaviours-sex, drugs and rock ’n’ roll-to figure out where we fit in best.

For a lot of girls, that means dating an older man. And in the world of These Girls, it means three girlfriends all sleeping with the same, older (and married) man.

Okay, I’ll admit that when I heard the premise of the film, I was nervous-it’s dicey subject matter portraying 17-year-olds sharing the same 32-year-old. But director John Hazlett’s screenplay, first conceived in stage form by Canadian playwright Vivienne Laxdal, is more than a teen sex comedy. And I’d forgotten was what it was like to be that age-you alternate between thinking you know it all and pretending that you do so that adults don’t mistake you for a child.

The three actors who portray the titular girls Keira, Lisa and Glory (Caroline Dhavernas, Holly Lewis and former MuchMusic VJ Amanda Walsh) haven’t forgotten, however, and dive into the rich script to deliver wonderfully diverse characters.

When Keira and Lisa find out that Glory’s babysitting gig includes sleeping with the handsome Mr Keith Clark (David Boreanaz from TV’s Bones), each decides that she, too, must try to seduce him-Keira just because she’s a bored teen in a small town and Lisa because she wants to get some experience before she heads off to bible college. Glory, of course, is sleeping with Keith because she’s in love.

It all sounds so sordid, but director John Hazlett handles the subject well, capturing teenage me-me-me malaise with a good mixture of humour. The performances from Dhavernas and Lewis are quite spectacular.

Dhavernas uses that same sarcasm she used so well on the short-lived and quirky Wonderfalls series, and there are some wonderfully comic moments between Lewis’s nerdy, pragmatic and unromantic Lisa and a surprisingly comic Boreanaz. From the supreme awkwardness of her First Time, lying in bed with the covers pulled tight to her chin, to the post-coital handshake with “Mr Clark,” both Lewis and Boreanaz deliver fine and unexpected laughs.

It’s truly a funny film, with a whimsical tone set from the opening credits, all in notebook-like doodles to the tune of Metric’s “Combat Baby.” Although the three girls are selfish, it’s difficult not to identify with them as they wind their way through the jealousies and forgiveness of their last summer of youth.

These Girls is more of a coming-of-age tale than it is a tale about anything else. As lighthearted as the film can be about some serious issues, it still manages to resonate. The scenario that Keira, Lisa and Glory concoct for themselves forces each to look inside of herself to find out who she need to be as an adult, all the while taking us along for the joyride. V

Opens Fri, Mar 24

These Girls

Directed by John Hazlett

Written by Hazlett, Vivienne Laxdal

Starring Caroline Dhavernas, Holly Lewis, Amanda Walsh