OxfordPress.com

Grade: B

Verdict: No oops. Britney's done it again.

Details: Starring Britney Spears. Rated PG-13 for sensuality, mild language, skimpy clothing. 1 hour, 34 minutes.

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Review: A gorgeous face. A luminous presence.

Sometimes, that's all a movie is about. Sometimes, that's all it needs to be about.

It's called star quality. Plain, old-fashioned sex appeal. And Britney Spears has it in quadruplicate.

Crossroads, her feature film debut, suffers from a paper-thin plot, amateurish direction, questionable moral lessons and, worst of all, a lumpish Dan Aykroyd as Britney's dad.

But who cares? We came to see Britney. Just like on MTV, she radiates an alluring blend of warm, blond innocence and tarty come-on -- a dollface kitten with a whip.

Of course, as the song says, she's not that innocent -- but she's no bimbo, either. At 20, Spears is turning out to be one wily celebrity with a strategy of alternating poses. Sexy Britney turns up the Lolita-ish heat with her striptease musical numbers and snake-wrapped dances, while Sweet Britney is a good 'ol Louisiana gal who, my gosh, just loves her momma, little sister and scruffy 'NSync boyfriend.

Those same bait-and-switch tactics are at the heart of Crossroads.

In the opening minutes, Sexy Britney blasts across the screen, dancing to Madonna music and wearing nothing but a teeny pink top and a pair of underwear that redefines the term "tighty whities." Once your eyeballs return to their sockets, here comes Sweet Britney saying: Hey, y'all, what's the fuss?

Spears plays Lucy, a goody-goody Georgia valedictorian who aced high school but missed all the fun. As classmate Kit (Zoe Saldana) taunts her, she's "perfect, sweet, nerdy . . . a virgin!" (Only in today's twisted film language is that a negative.)

While her blue-collar pop (Aykroyd) is thinking college, Lucy has lingering abandonment issues with a long-gone mom (Sex and the City's Kim Cattrall). When her childhood buds -- stuck-up cliché Kit and punky trailer-park cliché Mimi -- propose a cross-country road trip where Lucy can meet Mom and find herself, she naturally kicks off her remaining inhibitions.

Clichés pile up in Crossroads, but it's harmless, powder-puff fun. The girls hitch a ride with sexy mystery man Ben (Anson Mount), speeding the Southern rim in his cool yellow convertible and singing Shania Twain songs. They catfight in a Bourbon Street karaoke bar (where Sexy Britney slithers near a stripper pole belting out Joan Jett's I Love Rock 'n' Roll.)

There's the obligatory drunk scene and obligatory bonding moment when they reveal secrets, group hug and promise "we won't drift apart." In the movie's soap-opera-ish plot, Mimi (Taryn Manning) is pregnant, and Kit is traveling west to meet her fiancé, and it all dovetails ridiculously -- even for the film's impressionable, WB-weaned audience.

Meanwhile, Ben and Lucy smolder in true teen-mag fashion as they write a song together, which (and I'm sure this is a coincidence) just happens to be Britney's latest single, I'm Not a Girl, Not Yet a Woman. Will Lucy make that transition? Will Lucy become a singing star? Hey, go see the movie.

Just don't expect a smooth ride. Director Tamra Davis (Billy Madison) captures tiny, revealing moments between the foursome but is a shockingly inept technician, with endlessly flat camera angles and a cheap, grainy look. She even fails at basic travelogue shots.

Fortunately, Spears burns right through. Even when she is trying too hard, she has a quiet, unaffected quality. She's no deep-dish dramatist, but she handles an emotional scene, after meeting her mom, convincingly. She also doesn't force herself on the audience, content to be part of an ensemble and letting Mount and the winning Saldana (Center Stage) have their moments.

Bottom line: Should an adult bother with Crossroads? Only if you're some skeezer. This is strictly Generation Britney, though parents might want to think about its underlying messages of disobeying dad, flitting away your future and discovering your sexuality.

We'll give the last word to Spears: "It's easy to watch, not that damn deep." Consider yourself warned.

— Larry Aydlette, Cox News Service