Aidan Quinn, 24. Darryl Hannah, 23. Definitely attractive young adults, and maybe Darryl can pass (barely), but Aidan has the look of someone who might have been held back...twice. Nevertheless, it's a decent "teen angst" film set in a working class Ohio town, where I guess there is a upper middle class section where Hannah's family lives. Even though he's a football hero, Quinn is treated like a pariah by fellow players and the snooty cheerleaders although Hannah looks on at him with some sort of awe. She's dating his teammate Adan Baldwin, but ends up at a dance as Quinn's date, part of some high school ritual. Sparks fly in spite of her determination to stay away from him, with her insecurity over being the so-called perfect daughter slowly revealed. Issues with Quinn's ailing father gets him kicked off the squad, and after a romantic night together (in her parent's room), she can't deny how she feels anymore.
All the tropes of what '80s movies were all about are present in this movie, from the opposites attract theme through the crowd cheering ending. Good performances by Kenneth MacMillan and Lois Smith as his father and her mother should be noted, but as supportive as Smith is to her daughter, there's never a moment that expresses any knowledge of Hannah's romantic issues. Billy Jayne gets to be the big support as her kid brother who seems tickled to death that his sister's boyfriend is a motorcycle riding rebel.
The worst material goes to Cliff de Young as the football coach who also passes out career day cards, and it's too bad they didn't show his reaction to what these kids wrote. The fact that the students have to ask why they have to participate in such an exercise at the beginning of their senior year just doesn't seem to fit. Then there is the recurring setting of a open platform that Quinn rides his motorcycle on to crush a can that at one point yearly sends him over the edge, a plot device that goes nowhere. Something tells me that the problems are within the editing, not the script or directing. Some obscure hit 80's songs helps give this a gritty feel. Overall, it's the charm of the two slightly older than their roles leads that makes this memorable.
All the tropes of what '80s movies were all about are present in this movie, from the opposites attract theme through the crowd cheering ending. Good performances by Kenneth MacMillan and Lois Smith as his father and her mother should be noted, but as supportive as Smith is to her daughter, there's never a moment that expresses any knowledge of Hannah's romantic issues. Billy Jayne gets to be the big support as her kid brother who seems tickled to death that his sister's boyfriend is a motorcycle riding rebel.
The worst material goes to Cliff de Young as the football coach who also passes out career day cards, and it's too bad they didn't show his reaction to what these kids wrote. The fact that the students have to ask why they have to participate in such an exercise at the beginning of their senior year just doesn't seem to fit. Then there is the recurring setting of a open platform that Quinn rides his motorcycle on to crush a can that at one point yearly sends him over the edge, a plot device that goes nowhere. Something tells me that the problems are within the editing, not the script or directing. Some obscure hit 80's songs helps give this a gritty feel. Overall, it's the charm of the two slightly older than their roles leads that makes this memorable.