This is not a movie about love at first sight and living happily ever after. Sure, the two main characters, Danny and Debbie, fall for each other very quickly. But while they may think they're in love it becomes apparent they have very little grasp of what being in love actually means. If they want their happily ever afters they're going to have to work for them. Is it even worth the effort? Their respective best friends certainly don't seem to think so, doing everything they can to sabotage the relationship. And there are times Danny and Debbie do a fine job of sabotaging things themselves. This is an honest look at an evolving relationship, so many ups and downs. Love is great. But love can cause a lot of pain too.
The movie benefits from excellent performances from Rob Lowe and Demi Moore as the two young would-be lovers. Lowe strikes the right tone as a guy who, egged on by his friend, thinks he may just be too cool to fall in love. Danny doesn't want to open himself up, make himself vulnerable. He won't admit that finding Debbie is the best thing that ever happened to him, maybe until it's too late. Don't know what you got till it's gone? Meanwhile Moore has perhaps never been better than she was here. She's absolutely charming when she needs to be and radiant throughout. But when the relationship sours, when the pain and the hurt are too much to bear, Moore captures that brilliantly as well. Your heart aches for her.
With Lowe and Moore hitting all the right notes the movie was never going to fail. But there is the sense it could have been a little bit better than it was. As Danny and Debbie draw closer the movie slows down some. The possibility of their being in love was exciting but once they actually were in love, or at least thought they were, things get bogged down a bit. The supporting players don't help much. Playing Danny's friend Bernie is James Belushi. He provides most of the movie's humor, never more so than in the very opening scene which with its crackling, hilarious dialogue may be the best moment the movie has. But as Bernie tries to drive a wedge in the Danny-Debbie relationship he becomes too much of a boor for the movie's good, entirely unsympathetic. Meanwhile Elizabeth Perkins plays Debbie's friend Joan, the iciest of ice queens. It's impossible to warm up to this man-hater. Not the fault of the performance from Perkins, this character was simply written to be too obnoxious to bear. The pressure from their friends causes problems between Danny and Debbie but the relationship was built on a flimsy foundation to begin with. A one-night stand that too quickly became so much more. They weren't looking for love, found it anyway, and didn't know what to do with it. This is a movie which certainly has its flaws but it has notable charms as well. It's worth spending two hours to see if these young lovers want to spend their lives together.
The movie benefits from excellent performances from Rob Lowe and Demi Moore as the two young would-be lovers. Lowe strikes the right tone as a guy who, egged on by his friend, thinks he may just be too cool to fall in love. Danny doesn't want to open himself up, make himself vulnerable. He won't admit that finding Debbie is the best thing that ever happened to him, maybe until it's too late. Don't know what you got till it's gone? Meanwhile Moore has perhaps never been better than she was here. She's absolutely charming when she needs to be and radiant throughout. But when the relationship sours, when the pain and the hurt are too much to bear, Moore captures that brilliantly as well. Your heart aches for her.
With Lowe and Moore hitting all the right notes the movie was never going to fail. But there is the sense it could have been a little bit better than it was. As Danny and Debbie draw closer the movie slows down some. The possibility of their being in love was exciting but once they actually were in love, or at least thought they were, things get bogged down a bit. The supporting players don't help much. Playing Danny's friend Bernie is James Belushi. He provides most of the movie's humor, never more so than in the very opening scene which with its crackling, hilarious dialogue may be the best moment the movie has. But as Bernie tries to drive a wedge in the Danny-Debbie relationship he becomes too much of a boor for the movie's good, entirely unsympathetic. Meanwhile Elizabeth Perkins plays Debbie's friend Joan, the iciest of ice queens. It's impossible to warm up to this man-hater. Not the fault of the performance from Perkins, this character was simply written to be too obnoxious to bear. The pressure from their friends causes problems between Danny and Debbie but the relationship was built on a flimsy foundation to begin with. A one-night stand that too quickly became so much more. They weren't looking for love, found it anyway, and didn't know what to do with it. This is a movie which certainly has its flaws but it has notable charms as well. It's worth spending two hours to see if these young lovers want to spend their lives together.