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The film has a solid foundation, but what it builds on top seems to have been built with no blueprint. The film doesn’t know if it wants to be a more serious take on THE GRADUATE, a buddy flick or a teen sex film.
Jonathan Onger (Andrew McCarthy, ST. ELMO’S FIRE) is a high school student at a top boarding school. His roommate and best friend Skip Burroughs (Rob Lowe, AUSTIN POWERS) is from an extremely wealthy family and struggles to live up to his father’s (Cliff Robertson, SPIDER-MAN) expectations. After an embarrassing mishap, Jonathan is band from going to the school dance. So he ventures out to a bar were he starts up a heated affair with the much older Ellen (Jacqueline Bisset, DANGEROUS BEAUTY), who thinks Jonathan is a grad student. What Jonathan is surprised to learn after visiting Skip’s home on Christmas break is that Ellen is Skip’s mother.
The core story of a teen having an affair with an older woman who happens to be his best friend’s mother is intriguing. The film sets this up well and McCarthy and Bisset play it nicely. Yet, once the big revelation happens the film does nothing with it. The story basically abandons Bisset’s character focusing more on the reconciliation of Jonathan and Skip, which is by far the least interesting of the relationships in the triangle. A blaring omission is any scene between Skip and his mother after he finds out.
The set-up is an interesting emotional minefield, but the film doesn’t go for it and skips the long way around the edges. Moreover, some of the more ANIMAL HOUSE-like moments don’t gel with the more serious side of the film. Jonathan’s mishap with Lisa — played by a very young Virginia Madsen (SIDEWAYS) — is just teen sex comedy exploitation. The acting is good, but the players aren’t given the real meaty moments they deserve. Star spotters will notice a young John Cusack and Alan “FERRIS BUELLER’s Cameron” Ruck in the student body of the school. The schizophrenic nature of the narrative really wastes a potentially powerful story.
Rick DeMott
Animation World Network
Creator of Rick's Flicks Picks
