I happen to be a fairly big fan of Drew Barrymore's. She has an effervecense and charisma onscreen that's usually hard to ignore or discount. Is she a brilliant actress? Not always. But she is one that can carry a film on her honesty and sweetness. Plus she can be really funny. Which she is at points throughout this film. Unfortunately, they're too few and far between. She's too busy being quirky and nerdy. Bad clothes and jerky mannerisms does not a character make. She plays a grown woman with the maturity of a teenager. How could she get through college and land a job at a major newspaper with a personality like this? It just doesn't add up. There are other ways they could have shown that Josie Gellar was a total geek in high school, without the flashbacks to Drew in bad hair and braces. If she was that stunted by her first high school experience she never would have been able to succeed at all.

I'm not saying she should have been this wildly succesful woman, but I couldn't believe a 25-year-old being intimadated by a bunch of bratty 16-year-olds. She should have known better. That her interactions with them would make her uncomfortable due to her past torture at the hands of such kids was totally believable. That she was still a geek even as an adult I could buy. That their opinion should matter at all, I don't think so. They're children for god sakes. This is the chance she's been waiting for, to prove herself as a reporter. The fact that she has to be saved by everyone and her brother is just pathtetic. It's no wonder she got picked on. The film is about how Josie, a copy editor for the Chicago Sun Times gets a second chance to be one of the cool kids and achieve her dream of becoming a reporter all at the same time. She is enrolled in a local high school to do an undercover investigation about teens and their hopes, dreams and hijinks.

The catch is, if she doesn't get a fantastic story both she and her boss will lose their jobs. Her initial attempts to befriend the cool girls are disasterous. She quickly becomes the class joke and is well on her way to being completely ostracized for the second time, when she is rescued by the brainiac crew. She fits right in with them and even begins to enjoy herself. But the stories are not found amongst the geeky kids and she is forced to leave their "protection" to get a decent story. She also starts to fall in love with her English teacher, Mr. Coulson (Michael Vartan), and I have to admit that part of the story I could totally believe. It made me wish I hadn't gone to a Catholic High School, so I could have male teachers like that.