Hello baby

This is definitely one of my favorite romantic films. It's well acted, well written and well directed. Arquette and Spano's chemistry is wonderful. With the people I've talked to who have seen this film, there seems to be something personal that they can relate to the story. It's definitely not a happy movie, but I think that's what makes it really stick with you. It's starts out somewhat like a period romance you might have seen before. About midway through it takes a turn and may seem to lose momentum. This is what sets it apart from other romances. It has this unpredictability to it that some people might find unsatisfying. I have seen it several times and each viewing is fascinating. It is very rare that such a bittersweet marvel of a film comes along and even rarer that it gets the attention it deserves. One of John Sayles' finest.

After finally getting a VHS copy of this film, I find it is ranked right up there with my all-time favorites. Perhaps you had to have lived in that time, or attended a big-city high school or just be an incurable romantic to relate.

Even though this film is 23 years old, the emotions, settings and tragedies of young, rudder-less love are universal and timeless. Is there any among we female viewers who has not either had or wanted to have a "Sheik" type pursue you? Dangerous, enigmatic and probably a big no-no, but extremely intriguing.

The film has many subtle nuances that younger audiences my not recognize since the scenes are not thrown at the viewer in quick-time, but the gentle, heart-wrenching moments with the main characters tend to stick in your mind. I will never listen to "Strangers in the Night" again without thinking of the two dance scenes and the emotions they evoke.

Spano and Arquette are outstanding as the two star-crossed leads and the acting is both understated and powerful in the same moment. When Jill tells Shiek she just doesn't love him in the dorm scene and he backs up and with a whipped look on his face asks, "why not?", his character is stripped of all pretenses.

Shop around for this video, as it is film making with heart like you don't find very often in the current film catalogs. Watch and remember and weep a little for what was and never could be.

Quite a few careers got started in this 1982 Paramount release. Rosanna Arquette and Vincent Spano made their starring debuts, John Sayles landed his first major directing job and the film also features small parts by future stars Robert Downey Jr., Tracy Pollan and Matthew Modine. Set in 1965, a fine period soundtrack helps to propel this story of two mismatched teenagers (Arquette, Spano) whose love affair stems a lot of controversy within their community. The film is OK but time has not served it entirely well as sometimes it seems dated and it still suffers from being as obscure as it was when it was originally released.

This is an early picture by the inimitable John Sayles -- a portrait of Trenton some time in the mid-1960s through the eyes of the Rosanna Arquette, a middle-class aspiring actress who wants to go to Sarah Lawrence and Vincent Spano, a kid from the wrong side of the tracks. It looks like it was sold to the suits at Paramount on his writing ability and the rising tide of John-Landis-style teen comedies. Looking back from a third of a century later, I can see the complexity of story-telling, in the banal "bad-boy-good-girl" love story in a world that was about to vanish, as an act of satire... rendered a bit toothless, alas by its separation from the moment and the cluelessness of the characters. It makes them more real. Sayles' targets are too numerous here for accuracy.

I echo the comments of the other review posted here. The movie seems very uneven, and that adds to its lure. The interaction of Spano and Arquette seems all at once real and surreal. Any movie which makes me think of it into the next day, must have significant substance. It is rare to consider "uneven" a positive quality to a movie, but somehow this one pulls it off..