Une amie qui vous veut du bien

High school student Michael Ryan gets a letter from a secret admirer who he believes to be Debbie, a beautiful but shallow girl who only dates college guys. He goes to a fraternity party to find out if she is indeed the one, but that does not work out too well. For one thing, Debbie's boyfriend Steve still wants her even though she is tired of him. So Michael goes to his attractive and intelligent friend Toni, who is also a friend of Debbie's, to find out what to do. Michael starts writing anonymous letters of his own to Debbie (who is not identified), but the letters wind up in the wrong hands, with hilarious results. The letters that make it to Debbie, of course, are not Michael's because Toni doesn't think they are good enough and she makes changes. This is strange because it is clear throughout the entire movie that Toni and Michael belong together, so if Toni wanted Michael, all she would have to do would be to deliver the terrible letters to Debbie, who supposedly wouldn't want Michael after reading them.

There is some, but not a lot of physical comedy in this movie. Some of it results from confusion about who is in love with whom, and jealousy on the part of husbands, wives, boyfriends and girlfriends. There is also a scene where a former girlfriend has found out her boyfriend bragged, and she gets revenge. You wouldn't expect this particular girl to be violent.

I didn't see any great acting performances, though I liked Toni, and Kelly Preston sometimes came across quite well as the self-centered Debbie. Overall, I enjoyed it.

On the last day before summer vacation, Michael Ryan (C. Thomas Howell) finds an anonymous love letter in his locker. Michael has a crush on Deborah "Debbie" Anne Fimple (Kelly Preston), who is the most beautiful girl of the high-school, and his friend Roger (Casey Siemaszko) convinces him that Debbie has written the letter. Michael writes a love letter to Debbie and asks his best friend Toni (Lori Loughlin), who actually wrote the letter for him, to deliver the letter to Debbie that is also her friend. However Toni reads the letter and rewrites it to Debbie, who immediately falls in love with the unknown author. Meanwhile, Michael's mother Connie Ryan (Dee Wallace) finds Michael's letter and believes it belongs to her husband George Ryan (Cliff De Young) and Debbie's father Lou Fimple (Fred Ward) finds Debbie's letter and believes it belongs to his wife Elizabeth Fimple (Leigh Taylor-Young). Michael dates Debbie while their parents are astonished with the betrayals of their mates. Soon Michael finds that Debbie is a shallow teenager and he misses Toni. Further, he realizes that she has written the letters and he feels that he loves her. But Toni is aboard of a ship ready to travel to study abroad for one year. Will they meet each other?

"Secret Admirer" is a charming romantic comedy from the wonderful 80's. The plot is naive and funny and makes laugh a lot with the confusion generated by the love letters. The beauty of Kelly Preston is astonishing; C. Thomas Howell is excellent; but the sweet Lori Loughlin steals the show and is the greatest attraction of this film performing a lovely character. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "Admiradora Secreta" ("Secret Admirer")

Note: On 07 Sep 2018 I saw this film again.

I saw this first when it came out,I was about ten. I watched it again last night. I loved it then and I love it now. The dialogue acting and plot are really good. The characters are all great and fun as well. I noticed the difference between this movie and "teen comedies" made now and it goes like this. Secret Admirer contained, more subtle thoughtful character based humour, characters with a little more chaste morality (even Kelly's jerk jock boyfriend Steve didn't want to cheat), no sluts, plenty of foul language, diverse scene locations, and more intelligent dialogue and plot twists. I liked the characters a lot and the music by Jan Hammer was fantastic and memorable, which makes sense, since Jan Hammer is a bad S.O.B (just listen to Mahavishnu Orchestra and you will know that). I remember that when I was ten I thought that Kelly preston had the greatest breast, and I was right! I still found the movie just as funny as I did then and found the innocence of the characters endearing, in fact I found every scene memorable. Thomas Howell played the party guy in love to a T. Seeing Corey Haim as his little brother made me sad when I think what happened to the poor guy, he was great, very charismatic! You would have thought he had a great future. Bastard drugs! Anyway the humor is constant even at the end when it seems to be getting serious you get a trippy break when Mike asks for directions.

A joy of a film. 10/10.

Lieutenant Fimple ( Fred Ward ) has had a bad day. He thinks his wife is cheating on him so he follows her to a make out point. Then he goes to his mutual friends house and picks her up because the man that he thinks his wife is having an affair with is the woman's husband ( are you following me so far? ). He gets back to the make out point and they are gone. So he drives home his friend and then he gets into an accident. When he gets home, the man's ( who is apparently sleeping with his wife ) son has just finished giving his daughter a good night kiss. " Good evening Lieutenant Fimple, " the boy says, " F*** you! " Fimple replies. It is one of the funniest moments in the film and the film has quite a few of them.

Secret Admirer is one of the slew of teen films that came out in the 80's that was high on entertainment, if you let it do that. It is one of those films that should not be over analyzed. It is simple entertainment and it is goofball highschool entertainment. The characters in the film have fun with the roles they are thrust into and the dialogue is fresh and funny. Look for the part when the mailman comes to Michael's house and is apparently late with the mail. Classic.

I wish they could make films like this as we head into the new millennium. They are here to entertain and nothing more. And that is sometimes all we can ask for.

Young man (C. Thomas Howell) gets an unsigned love letter on the last day of school. He thinks it is from the most popular girl in school (Kelly Preston) and sets about trying to win her over. At the same time however, the letter is getting passed along and mixed up with other people who mistakingly think it is addressed to them.

One of the best films of the genre is a charming, sweet and romantic teen comedy that features an adorable score, a great cast that is used perfectly (especially Lori Loughlin as Howell's best friend and Fred Ward as Preston's dad) and a good ending. Plenty of laughs and suspense along the way also!

Rated R; Sexual Situations, Nudity, Mild Violence and Profanity.