The Crush (1993 film)

Infobox Film
name = The Crush


caption = North American film poster
director = Alan Shapiro
producer = James G. Robinson
Gary Barber
writer = Alan Shapiro|
starring = Alicia Silverstone
Cary Elwes
Kurtwood Smith
music = Graeme Revell
cinematography = Bruce Surtees
editing = Ian Crafford
distributor= Warner Bros.
released= flagicon|United States April 2, 1993
runtime = 89 mins.
country = USA
language = English
imdb_id = 0106627
awards =
budget = |Infobox movie certificates
Argentina = 16
Australia = M
Canada (British Columbia) = 14A
Canada (Alberta) =
Canada (Manitoba) =
Canada (Ontario) = R
Canada (Maritime) =
Canada (Quebec) =
Canada (Home Video) = R
Chile = 14
Finland = 15
Germany = 16
Iceland = 12
Singapore = PG
Spain = 18
Sweden = 15
United_Kingdom = 15
United_States = R

"The Crush" is a 1993 American thriller film written and directed by Alan Shapiro. It stars Cary Elwes and Alicia Silverstone in her feature film debut. It was filmed on location in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

Plot summary

Nick Eliot (Elwes), a journalist, moves into a new neighborhood where the young Adrian Forrester (Silverstone) lives. She is fourteen years old, half his age. She becomes very interested in him, but he rejects her advances, especially since she is so young. Her parents don't realize she is an emotionally unstable sociopath, even after she sets out to destroy his life — and eventually him.

Tagline: "He thought it was just a crush. He was dead wrong."

Plot synopsis

Arriving in a new city, writer Nick Eliot (Cary Elwes) secures a job at Pique magazine and lodgings in a guest house belonging to Cliff and Liv Forrester (Kurtwood Smith and Gwynyth Walsh). The handsome Nick soon makes the acquaintance of the Forrester's 14-year-old daughter Adrian (Alicia Silverstone), a precocious girl who develops an intense attraction to him. She secretly helps Nick by sneaking into his room and rewriting one of his Pique stories, which subsequently wins a rave from his editor/boss Michael (Matthew Walker). At a party thrown by the Forresters, Nick agrees to accompany the lonely girl on a nightly drive to a romantic spot, where she kisses him.

This intensifies Adrian's crush on Nick, but he quickly wises up and attempts to put her off, having begun a budding romance with co-worker Amy (Jennifer Rubin). Adrian continues to boldly pursue him, even going so far as to undress in his view. Nick, however, continues to rebuff her advances, and Adrian's actions become destructive--she defaces a car he's restored and erases his computer discs--yet he's unable to convince Cliff and Liv of what's going on. Cheyenne (Amber Benson), a friend of Adrian who has warned Nick about her, meets with an "accident" at the riding school they attend together. Then, after Adrian spies on Amy in bed with Nick, the girl locks Amy in her darkroom and empties a hornets' nest into the vents.

Amy survives, and Nick, now convinced that Adrian is big trouble, attempts to find new lodgings. However, Adrian manages to sabotage his efforts. She then accuses him of assaulting her with "evidence" obtained from a used condom from Nick's trash, leading to his arrest. After Michael bails him out (and fires him), Nick is met once again by Cheyenne, who informs him of a diary Adrian kept that can acquit him. When he goes looking for it, he discovers Cheyenne tied up in the attic and is confronted by Adrian and then Cliff, who attacks him. Adrian, still infatuated, attacks her father, leaving Nick free to subdue her with one punch. Acquitted, Nick goes to live with Amy while Adrian, confined to a psychiatric ward, continues to write him letters, even as she's developing a crush on her doctor.

Cast

*Cary Elwes as Nicholas "Nick" Eliot
*Alicia Silverstone as Adrian Forrester (originally Darian Forrester)
*Jennifer Rubin as Amy Maddik
*Kurtwood Smith as Cliff Forrester
*Gwynyth Walsh as Liv Forrester
*Amber Benson as Cheyenne
* Matthew Walker as Michael
* Duncan Fraser as Detective

Name change: Darian to Adrian

Though the film was allegedly loosely based on writer-director Alan Shapiro's experience involving a girl named Darian, the film's end credits deny any relative basis on actual people or events, stating that the "Story, events, and characters depicted are fictitious, no identification with or similarity to actual persons or to actual events is intended or should be inferred". Alicia Silverstone's character was originally named Darian. As a result of a lawsuit brought by the real Darian's family, the character was renamed to Adrian and the movie dubbed to reflect the change. Shapiro hated the change and had no say in it nor had any input into its implementation.

The original actors did not dub their own voices for the Adrian name change. The cast admitted that the dubbing was done by unknown actors, hence the slight difference with the voices. At times, some dialogue phrases preceding the name Adrian were also dubbed for a more unnoticeable voice transition. When the film was released in theaters in 1993, audiences got to hear the name Darian. The name Darian also remained on VHS and laserdisc editions. The DVD release contains the dub.

Production

Alicia Silverstone

Alicia Silverstone became legally emancipated at age 15 to work the hours for this film and avoid child labor laws. She turned 16 while working on the set. All of Silverstone's nude scenes were done by a body double. Silverstone strictly refused to do nudity for this film and also had a no-nudity clause in her contract.

Music video director Marty Callner was searching for an actress to star in his upcoming Aerosmith music video when a friend suggested that he watch "The Crush", which was currently playing in theaters at the time. He did, and he cast Alicia Silverstone in not one but three of the highly popular Aerosmith videos of the early 1990s known as the "Cryamazy trilogy", entitled "Cryin'," "Crazy," and "Amazing".

Trivia

*The final confrontation on an amusement park carousel was inspired by the Hitchcock film "Strangers on a Train".

Awards & Nominations

ee also

*1993 in film

External links

* [http://www.geocities.com/thecrushontheweb/homepage.html "The Crush: The Homepage of Darian Forrester"] film collective resource
*imdb title|id=0106627|title=The Crush
*http://www.geocities.com/thecrushontheweb/darianvsadrian.html