Eight Days a Week

This amusing little 1997 indie prefigured the sweet-but-gross teen formula of American Pie, but it adds a dose of laconic quirkiness and even a bit of a Rear Window riff. Josh Schaefer embodies the perfect combination of puppy-dog adorability and wistful nerdiness as Peter, the lovestruck protagonist, while R.D. Robb embraces his orgasm-obsessed sidekick character with a knowing humor that's missing from most such outré teen material. Keri Russell brings the exact same qualities to her pert, inscrutable prom queen as she does to her character on the WB's Felicity; whether such winsome self-possession enchants or rankles will depend on the prejudices of the individual viewer. Russell's character, however, is almost incidental; this is a good-natured story of one guy's obsession -- and of the worm's-eye view his perennial campout affords him of his neighborhood's many offbeat inhabitants. As Peter observes the wacky widows, horny housewives, and potentially wife-murdering neighbors who surround him, his own romance suddenly doesn't seem so quixotic. Such simple, suburban truths may seem sophomoric, but Eight Days a Week sketches them out with enough wide-eyed affability that its coming-of-age earnestness ultimately charms. ~ Brian J. Dillard, All Movie Guide