Summaries

At Pacific Palisades High, a poor Latino falls hard for a troubled girl from an affluent neighborhood.

Jay Hernandez stars as Carlos Nunez, a poor but athletically gifted Latino teenager who endures a two-hour bus ride every day from East L.A. to attend the posh, wealthy Pacific Palisades High School in Los Angeles on a football scholarship. A straight-A student, Carlos is focused and driven, but his future is cast in doubt when he becomes the flirtation target of spoiled, self-destructive bad girl Nicole Oakley (Kirsten Dunst), who's the daughter of a prominent congressman (Bruce Davison). When his friends, family, and even Nicole's own father oppose the romance for Carlos' sake, he chooses to ignore their advice and stubbornly pursues his relationship with Nicole, whose feelings grow from simple physical attraction to something much deeper.

When fate brings together two high school seniors from opposite sides of the tracks, it's something crazy/beautiful. Nicole (Kirsten Dunst) is the 17-year-old troubled daughter of a wealthy congressman who never met a rule she didn't break. Carlos (Jay Hernandez) is a grade A student with big dreams who endures a two-hour bus ride every morning to attend high school in an upscale L.A. neighborhood. Their innocent flirtations quickly develop into passionate love, but Nicole's self-destructive behavior threatens their relationship and puts Carlos' promising future in jeopardy. Will their intense passion keep them together despite the objections of their families or will Carlos be forced to plan his future without Nicole?—Gavin Nelson Magnum

Details

Keywords
  • culture clash
  • stepmother stepdaughter relationship
  • crying girl
  • self destructiveness
  • troubled girl
Genres
  • Drama
  • Romance
Release date Jun 28, 2001
Motion Picture Rating (MPA) PG-13
Countries of origin United States
Language English Spanish
Filming locations Palisades Charter High School, 15777 Bowdoin St, Pacific Palisades, California, USA
Production companies Touchstone Pictures Ufland Productions

Box office

Budget $13000000
Gross US & Canada $16937988
Opening weekend US & Canada $4715060
Gross worldwide $19937988

Tech specs

Runtime 1h 39m
Sound mix DTS Dolby Digital SDDS
Aspect ratio 1.85 : 1

Synopsis

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