Pris sur le vif

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.

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!

I just watched this movie today again after having it sit on my shelf for a few years. I don't remember if I thought it was such a hot movie when I first saw it, or that I bought it because it was just cheap and might come in handy some Saturday afternoon that I might be searching for a little 80s entertainment.

It's not a bad movie, don't get me wrong. And you're likely to enjoy it if you've been impressed with Jon Cryer's catalog of 80s movies, given that most of them were mediochre. And, you're likely to enjoy it if you like Demi Moore's early 80s films as well. She'll even sing you a number or two.

I find this movie to be charming as an 80s version of an old Judy Holiday/Jack Lemmon movie called 'It Should Happen to You' in which Lemmon plays a documentary filmmaker and Holiday plays a young woman looking to get famous by posting her billboards up around the city. It's not quite the same story exactly, but there are similarities. Nonetheless, 'No Small Affair' is a nice little love story. Not boom boom grand, but just a pleasant little film.

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.

Jon Cryer plays Charles a teenager more into photography than dating per say or things more "normal" teenagers are interested in. Until one day a beautiful very young Demi Moore happens to set in front of his lens for a picture and our hero falls in love and develops a big crush upon first site.

What actually interested me at first to check this film out was flipping channels I thought the young Demi Moore was Jennifer Connelly at first. I still kept watching the film out of curiosity and immediately liked it though. Pre social media and what not. It's a very cute coming of age film. I really liked Charles and actually Demi's character of Laura as well. Charles kind of reminded of myself in a lot of ways.

Its rare nowadays to see likeable movie characters.