``American Pie'' is a teen sex comedy that gets it right. It casts actors who look plausible and treats sex with honesty and no apologies.
The honesty keeps this ribald comedy, which opens today, from being distasteful. The phony stock characters found in every other teen comedy aren't here. There are no football players going to bed with a different cheerleader every night. There are no virtuous young fellows passing up sexual opportunities for vague moral reasons. These guys are teenagers, after all. They don't get many opportunities to pass up.

　　 The premise of the film sounds like that of every other movie set in a high school: Four young fellows, approaching graduation, resolve to lose their virginity on or before prom night. It has to be ``valid, consensual sex. No prostitutes.''

　　 What distinguishes ``American Pie'' is the way the story is told. In addition to being extremely funny, the film has a warm spirit and respect for the characters. For once, this warmth extends to the young women in the movie. They're not typed as saints, bimbos or objects o英文影评 ineffable mystery but as fellow humans going through a similar period of turmoil and adventure.

　　 It's the fairness and knowingness of Adam Herz's script and the sure- handedness of Paul Weitz's direction that makes ``American Pie'' something for adults to enjoy. Of course, the appeal for teenagers is obvious, and the R rating is sure to test the ability of theaters to keep unaccompanied young people out. In this case, the vigilance might be a bit misplaced. On this subject, 16- year-olds know the score as well as their parents do.

　　 Jason Biggs has the funniest role as Jim, who is both easily aroused and terrified of girls. He steels himself to approach a girl at a party, but all he can manage is nervous laughter. The picture provides Jim with a succession of painful humiliations -- including a long, delightful and embarrassing scene in which his fumbled escapades are accidentally sent out over the Internet.

　　 Chris Klein (``Election'') plays a lacrosse jock who joins the glee club to meet girls. Thomas Ian Nicholas is Kevin, the only one of the quartet to have a girlfriend (Tara Reid). The matter-of-factness with which girlfriend and boyfriend talk about taking the final step -- while routinely doing everything else but -- has the ring of truth.

　　 ``American Pie'' consistently gets the details right -- details most adults in the audience will have forgotten since high school. For example, when the four virgin guys find out that a nerdy friend has lost his virginity before they have, their conception of their place in the universe is diminished. They feel as they might, 20 years later, if an underling got promoted over them.

　　 Finch (Eddie Kaye Thomas), who rounds out the quartet, is the quietest of the fellows but the most scheming. He hires one of the girls at school to start rumors about him that exaggerate his prowess and talk him up as a tough guy. In a less honest picture, the movie would eventually contrive to hook Finch up with the girl he hired (Natasha Lyonne). But these filmmakers apparently remember high school and understand that these characters are at an age when friendship doesn't lead to dating but to brotherly and sisterly feelings that make dating impossible.

　　 Though it follows the journeys of each of the four guys, ``American Pie'' never has a start-and-stop feeling but is all of a piece. The movie is filled with great bits that are not worth ruining by explaining them.

　　 And then there's that thing with the pie. But be on the lookout for Alyson Hannigan, who almost steals the picture as a ``band geek,'' and Jennifer Coolidge as a sexy middle- aged mom who drinks single-malt scotch ``aged 18 years. Just the way I like it.''