Posted: 06/10/2010

Starstruck

(2010)

by Laura Tucker

I have a guilty pleasure to confess to. I enjoy the occasional Disney movie, and also like certain Nickelodeon fare such as iCarly. Sometimes I watch this stuff and roll my eyes, yet other times I can completely enjoy it. Maybe not as much as my teenage daughter, yet I still enjoy it. The girl that stars in Starstruck, Danielle Campbell, looks surprisingly like Miranda Cosgrove, aka Carly Shay. I knew my daughter would love it, although she was unsure, simply because she didn’t immediately know anyone in it. What I was unsure of was if this would be one that I liked as well.

Sara Olson (Maggie Castle) has a huge celebrity crush on pop star Christopher Wilde (Sterling Knight). She is obsessed with him to the point of knowing everything about him, from where he hangs out and when to what he likes and doesn’t like. Her sister, Jessica (Campbell), is the complete opposite and can’t understand how someone could be so hung up on someone they don’t even know. They and their parents are headed from the family home in Kalamazoo to Los Angeles to stay with their grandmother.

In L.A., Sara borrows her grandmother’s embarrassing car, which looks a lot like an old AMC Pacer, to carry out her plan of stalking Christopher Wilde to al the places she knows he’ll be, including a mini-concert in honor of his girlfriend. The only way she can get the car, though, is to take Jessica with her. The sisters get separated at the concert, and through an unfortunate incident, Jessica gets hit in the head with a door with Christopher on the other side. He does the right thing and takes her to the hospital, but they have to do it through disguises and secrecy to avoid the paparazzi. He expects her to be fawning all over him like most girls her age, but the truth is, she still doesn’t care much for him.

Once Jessica is cleared to leave the hospital, she’s still not able to rid herself of this pop star. They sneak out of the hospital and head to a party at Christopher’s house, one that’s being held in his honor. He doesn’t want to be questioned about who this girl is with him, so makes her hide. She finally rids herself of him that night, only to end up crossing paths with him again. She’s stuck going on another joy ride with him because of more paparazzi.

The obvious joke here, of course, is that while Sara knows everything about the object of her affection and follows him all around, right beneath her nose, the person who couldn’t care less for him is the one that gets his undivided attention. The will they or won’t they thing going on between Jessica and Christopher is a fun one. It’s also a fresh theme and has a great story to tell about the paparazzi and how damaging it can be to young stars. The acting of Castle is somewhat overdone, but Knight and Campbell are really good in this.

Starstruck is available right now on DVD, and also is avilable along with a CD of the soundtrack.

Laura Tucker is the webmaster of Reality Shack and its accompanying Reality Shack Blog, provides reviews at Viewpoints, and provides entertainment news pieces at Gather. She is also an Instructor and 2nd dan black belt in tae kwon do with South Elgin Martial Arts. Laura can be reached at LauraBelle@realityshack.com.

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