Inoffensive teen romance given instant and ongoing credibility by the presence of Allison Janney as the heroine's recently divorced mother. (A credibility that must withstand the angry-woman cliché of chopping up phallic vegetables for supper, as well as the slapstick indignity of getting humped by the in-laws' dog.) Peter Gallagher, with far less opportunity, is credible in his own right as the embarrassing and abandoning father, a soft-rock DJ with a trademark howl and a triangle of fur below his lower lip. And pop singer Mandy Moore (keeping her singing voice to herself) as the down-on-love heroine, if not particularly credible, is captivating nevertheless in a scrubbed and sanitized sort of way, a way that harks back to the heyday of Sandra Dee. With Trent Ford, Alexandra Holden, Mackenzie Astin, Mary Catherine Garrison, Dylan Baker; directed by Clare Kilner. (2003) — Duncan Shepherd
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