Um Caso Muito Sério

Nice romantic comedy about a 16 year old guy (Jon Cryer), who likes taking pictures more as he likes girls, but that is going to change when he discovers a pretty girl on the pictures he shot in the harbor. He than falls in love and wants to find this girl, who sings in a rockband, and after some adventures they get an affair, till the point that she has to go to LA for her career, something he helped her with for the price of $6000 (I believe)....

Liked the performances of Jon Cryer, Demi Moore and also George Wendt. Although this movie is not that special, I always enjoy it when it's broadcasted.

It's not that it's an 80s film that makes it so bad, even though I dislike nearly everything about that decade. I mean, it has John Cryer and Demi Moore in it. They were leaders at that time. Both of these actors had quite extensive movie lists from the decade of the eighties. For some reason. Demi, especially, was awful. Her fake singing voice was OK, but her character seemed to be based on Madonna's character in that movie about Susan.

Her style was like a leftover from the eighties, nothing fresh and nothing cute. Just kind of messy.

Just when I thought it couldn't get worse, the last ten minutes of the movie came on...GOOD GRIEF, what a terrible movie!

Maybe I've begun to appreciate movies from the 70, 80, and 90's. It's probably they seem more emotionally realistic. In a time today high school aged children are often depicted as mature with all the answers. It wasn't true then and it isn't now. It's nice to see a movie where the intricacies of a relationship overwhelm someone that doesn't have the life experience to understand. Truly it takes a very long time and an ability to forgive and subordinate to each other at times.

John Cryer really nails his role and Demi is terrific. Even though Cryer's character in some respects is far more mature than his peers, he still has the excitement and awkwardness of a first love. You never forget your first love.

Charles Cummings (Jon Cryer) is a 16 year old amateur photographer in San Francisco. His brother Leonard brings home his latest fiancée Susan. He considers Leonard his mother's favorite. His mother's boyfriend Ken (Jeffrey Tambor) urges him to be normal. He takes a picture of Laura Victor (Demi Moore) and becomes infatuated with her photo. He searches everywhere for her. Leonard and Susan take the underage Charles out to a club run by Jake (George Wendt). Charles is surprised to find Laura singing. She's struggling with her band and her faltering career. After initially dismissing the younger Charles, she has a fun day out with him taking pictures. The wedding crashers get found out and Laura has to sing for their supper. Charles spends all his money for his Milan trip to advertise Laura on 150 taxis but it's so vague that people assume she's an escort or it's a phone sex line.

This is Jon Cryer's movie debut. He delivers a great puppy love very much in the vein of Duckie. Demi Moore has her star quality in a struggling artist character. The story is a meandering teen rom-com. Maybe it's the presence of Duckie but this does have a faded sense of a John Hughes movie. It's not quite at a high level but the two leads are magnetic and compelling. It's a cheesy little romance with two terrific future stars.

John Cryer plays a young photographer who's older brother is intent on making him a man when Cryer's affections lay elsewhere.

Shot around San Francisco's more popular areas (there are no apartments on the aging SF docks, and never were) with some fictional locations, the film, to me, feels like a budget version of Ferris Bueller's Day Off. Cryer even feels and looks a little like Mathew Broderick, only the film with Broderick came out two years after this one.

The truth is it's a nice little film with some token nudity for the young male audience, and in spite of that it has charm, notably with the taxi add sequence.

For the geeky young photographers, gamers, science club and chess club types, this film is for us. It's designed to encourage the young shy types with solo shy oriented hobbies and pass to, as a fellow SF Studios intern once told me, "don't ever deny yourself to anyone..." I wish I had followed that advice thirty years ago, ah, but the Saudis and Turks had different plans, but I digress.

Anyway, it's a good hearted film that some of the more conservative might find ever so slightly offensive, but again the film means well.

Check it out on a weekend night if you have nothing better to do. If nothing else it'll remind you of how San Francisco used to be at one time.