The studio advertises “Drive Me Crazy” as another teenybopper romantic comedy, complete with promotional Britney Spears video.

The ads are misleading, but for a change that’s a good thing. Despite its terrible title “Drive Me Crazy” proves more substantial than bubble gum. The story is less comedy than drama, populated by teenage characters who are – you had better sit down for this – believable.

Melissa Joan Hart, the star of “Sabrina, the Teenage Witch,” and Adrian Grenier play Nicole and Chase, next-door neighbors who were inseparable during elementary school but had a major falling out during junior high.

Now they are high school seniors and opposites. Nicole is the queen of the school spirit committee whose dream date is Brad (Gabriel Carpenter), captain of the basketball team. Chase is the class troublemaker who wears a tattered Army jacket and hangs out in college coffee shops with his politically active girlfriend, Dulcie (Ali Larter).

When both get dumped, Nicole and Chase strike a deal: They will pretend to be each other’s date for the upcoming dance hoping to win back their jealous exes. After a few dates with Nicole, Chase is wearing outfits from the Gap, cheering at basketball games and singing along to REO Speedwagon songs.

Sure, the story has been done before (“Drive Me Crazy” often plays as a serious version of the 1987 comedy “Can’t Buy Me Love”) and everyone in the audience knows what will come of the “fake” romance. What separates “Drive Me Crazy” from almost every other high school film are the reactions of the supporting characters.

Chase loses touch with his outcast friends Dave (Mark Webber) and Ray (Kris Park), but instead of sulking until their opportunity to give Chase the “wise up!” speech, they get on with their lives. “I finally downloaded the original Space Invaders,” Dave tells Ray. “We’re talking quality 1981 graphics.”

In any other movie Brad would turn out to be a vain jerk who winds up sleeping with Nicole’s best friend. Instead he is a decent enough guy, just a little shallow.

Screenwriter Rob Thomas (“Dawson’s Creek”) spent five years as a high school teacher, and it shows. None of the supporting characters is portrayed as an extreme or a stereotype. They are intelligent kids you would find in any high school hallway.

Thomas also includes insights about these teenagers’ parents, who came of age in the early 1970s. Nicole’s wayward father (Stephen Collins) hands her a copy of “Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.” “Read this,” he says, “and you’ll understand me.”

Thomas’ script is based on Todd Strasser’s novel, “How I Created My Perfect Prom Date,” which I am willing to bet is a fine book. But like many literary adaptations, “Drive Me Crazy” suffers when it tries to include too much of the book. The subplot with Nicole’s father adds nothing.

“Drive Me Crazy” also has its share of movie cliches – musical shopping montage, hot-air balloon ride and local carnival – but they are all mercifully brief. Otherwise the film is believable until the big dance, which looks like it takes place in an Indiana Jones underground temple decorated in blue neon. Only in movies do school dances have the operating budget of the Academy Awards show.

But not even a conventional ending mars the dignity of the characters and actors.

Parents whose young daughters adore “Sabrina” should be warned, though. “Drive Me Crazy” is rated PG-13 for a reason. The story touches on teen drinking, drug use and date rape.

Hart also seems determined to shed her wholesome TV image. Though she doesn’t pull a Traci Lords, her character walks around in her bra, gets drunk and adds a second syllable to “bull.”

When Hart gets back to the “Sabrina” set, that talking cat might want to have a few words with her.
jeffwesthoff@nwherald.com