There are about 365 Golden Globe nominated flicks out there and I only have like one day to see them. And I know I have to get those potential Oscar pictures under my belt to be allowed to continue this movie writing gig.

So of course, what I did when I had a two-hour lull on a lazy Friday afternoon was check out the film that most major papers sent their "B" critic to review.

What I found was a refreshing romantic comedy without Julia Roberts or Team Sleepless in Seattle there to screw it up. Thanks but no thanks, Nodding-Off Hill and Runaway From the Theater.

My Meg Ryan is Julia Stiles--and yours should be too, if you are any age between puberty and recent college graduate.

The 18-year-old is a big reason why Miramax's Down to You is so endearing. She was the shining star of 10 Things I Hate About You, 1999's vastly underrated "Taming of the Shrew" update.

Stiles teams with teen screen veteran Freddie Prinze Jr. (She's All That, IKWYDLS) to form a likable young couple, Imogen and Al.

Insert the boy-meets-girl, boy-loses-girl cliché here. Yes, the plot is, as my sister says in her Robert Palmer styling, simply so predictable. But we're more interested in seeing how those two shiny happy people interact.

The signature of these romps is a wacky side cast of characters, including Monk the porn mogul (Zak Orth), Hicks the muscle-bound freakazoid (Shawn Hatosy), Cyrus the great siren (Selma Blair, Zoe of the WB) and Jim Morrison, the Jim Morrison wannabe (Ashton Kutcher of That '70s Show).

I almost forgot the second string of crazy characters: Fonzie Henry Winkler plays Al's kooky chef dad and Lucie Arnaz is Al's kooky DJ mom. The kooky pair cooks up and spins around a little harmless fun with their doting-parent comedy.

Down is writer-director Kris Isaacson's first mainstream effort--and it's clear he has a clue about how collegians talk and date. He also effectively uses flashbacks and reenactments to enhance several scenes.

Stiles radiates when she delivers Isaacson's dialogue with confidence and resonates its intelligence. When Al declares Imogen is "perfect," you don't need to blink to believe him.

Prinze Jr. has established himself as a solid leading man in this genre whose audience wouldn't know the difference between Chico and the Man and B.J. and the Bear.

Prinze Jr. and Stiles really click and make each other tick--when I first saw the trailer, I said "Hey, that's a pretty decent match." A match with a lot of sparks, for sure.

I must admit, Stiles' presence in Down provided a slam-dunk 3 p.m. entertainment choice. I am quite certain I was the only one in the handful crowd who was down with her--I could only identify online sports editors and high school girls in attendance.

In the Britney-Christina epoch, it's good to see that Disney can still employ young women who are more than pretty faces and overpriced boobs.

Don't get me wrong--if I'm at home at that 3 p.m. entertainment decision time, a sneak-peek at TRL for Mandy Moore's "Candy" video and a pre-work munchie is par for the couch. But I need more than a sugar rush--I'm looking for something a little more nutritious. Stiles is substance compared to the guilty-pleasure confection of most teenage talents.