Lucas

There's something extraordinary about "Lucas"; something that makes it impossible for us to reject it. We have always watched movies like "Lucas" along the ages, I have watched plenty of movies like it; and have disliked them all. Not that "Lucas" is great, but you know what I say about 'Love Actually"? If you express it with this film, "Lucas" is good as a movie, but almost brilliant as a family inspirational picture.

What happens in the film is like a tale…An old tale of a boy who is not accepted in his everyday environment and tries to live with it. The hero of this tale is the special Lucas, played by Corey Haim as a boy who is definitely stranger and more intelligent than the rest of his companions; it's something you notice immediately.

Or at least Maggie (Kerri Green) notices it. She spends the entire summer with him and when school starts he doesn't know what's going to happen. Logically, he has his two or three nerdy best friends that are there for him, included a girl named Rina (the first role Winona Ryder ever played, with 15 years old or so…Gorgeous), who obviously likes him and follows his look while he is searching for Maggie on the first day of classes.

It's not that Lucas dislikes his friends, but that he had sensed something different when knowing Maggie. But Maggie is older, and interested in older guys like Cappie (a very young Charlie Sheen), for example. In a very good scene where Cappie takes care of Lucas, Maggie thanks him and they both talk about Lucas…My brother thought Maggie was in love with Lucas, but I told him that she had a crush on Cappie…The movie understands the characters so well that it turned out the way I said, of course.

The language these kids deal with, the situations they live are real. David Seltzer, who directed and wrote the film, puts strong and hurtful words in his screenplay so they generate an impact in the picture's most moving moments. "But that doesn't turn you on, does it?", Lucas tells Maggie…That's not the kind of phrase you'd commonly listen a 13-year old say, even less on a film. That's the way Seltzer shapes his characters, in a way that we believe everything they declare and in a way that the only thing that becomes predictable in the movie is the storyline itself.

A known writer, Seltzer has directed few things. As a director, he also preserves his characters. Watch a beautiful scene where the choir is singing and the camera goes from side to side showing each of the main characters looking at the person he likes, but not one of them being corresponded with the look. That's perfect directing, even more in a film of this type…So classic: the simple edition (Priscilla Nedd-Friendly, "Down to Earth"), the touchy score (Dave Grusin, "The Goonies", "Hope Floats", "Selena").

What I'm trying to say is that, to Seltzer, is all about the movie. The actors don't show off, Corey Haim is the hero but not the star. It's about the movie; a piece with an absolutely clichéd resolution that we find inspiring and therefore embrace.

Haim gives his overall best performance as the 14-year-old title character who has a crush on new girl Green and they bond during the summer, but by the time school begins, he gets teased by the jocks and Green leaves him out in the cold and has eyes for football hunk Sheen, who has become Lucas's bodyguard. Fraught with rejection and neglect, Lucas attempts to prove himself worthy by trying out for the football team, which he knows is no easy task for a boy his age. Unlike many other teen movies, LUCAS gives us a character that we can actually relate to, and the other characters fit in perfectly. One of the best teen movies of the 80's.

4 out of 5

During the summer vacation, the fourteen year-old Lucas Bly (Corey Haim) meets the sixteen year-old newcomer in town Maggie (Kerri Green) and they become best friends. Lucas is an intelligent boy that loves bugs and shows the mansion where he lives to Maggie. When classes begin, Maggie learns that Lucas is not a popular student but an outcast nerd at school and bullied by the football players. The football captain Cappie (Charlie Sheen) protects Lucas because the boy helped him when he was ill. Soon Lucas has a crush on Maggie but she falls in love with Cappie, while Lucas' schoolmate Rina (Winona Ryder) loves him. When Maggie joins the cheerleaders, Cappie's girlfriend Alise (Courtney Thorne-Smith) becomes jealous of her and she ends the relationship with Cappie. Meanwhile Lucas joins the football team expecting to impress Maggie. During a game, Lucas is hurt and Maggie finds that he lives in a trailer with his alcoholic father. What will happen to Lucas?

"Lucas" is a touching classic from the wonderful 80's, with a pleasant and sensitive story of unrequited first love. Corey Haim has a magnificent performance in the role of a boy with no family that falls in love with an older girl. The difference of two years for a fourteen year-old boy is indeed too much. Another attraction is to see Winona Ryder, Charles Sheen and others very young in the beginning of career. After almost thirty years, "Lucas" is still a delightful heartbreaking film. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "A Inocência do Primeiro Amor" ("The Innocence of the First Love")

Note: On 10 April 2019 I saw this film again.

What ever happened to the adorable female co-star of this film? She's quite lovely in this film, but she seems to have disappeared. Anyway, this is a fun teenage comedy-romance that features Corey Haim, before he got annoying, in a role where he showed great potential as an actor. My guess, he didn't know Corey Feldman yet? Charlie Sheen mumbles his way through the role of the jock with a heart. Winona Ryder, Jeremy Piven, Courtney-Thorne Smith also co-star in this...a cute film.

This film is becoming a classic because of the fine, early performances from Winona Ryder, Charlie Sheen, Corey Haim, even Courtney Thorne-Smith of "Ally McBeal".

It is a unique movie with a love triangle where the viewer wants both guys (Sheen and Haim) to get the girl. But of course both can not.

"Lucas" is about the truths of life and relationships, and how the teenage years bring them to the surface. Another interesting element is the use of insects for symbolism.