Le prince de Pennsylvanie

High school drop-out Keanu Reeves (as Rupert) gets a weird haircut (long on the left side, short on the right). A biker dude, slash aspiring poet, Mr. Reeves works with conservative father Fred Ward for a coal-mining company. But, Reeves does not want to follow in his father's sooty footsteps. After tailing busty mother Bonnie Bedelia, Reeves confirms she has a sex buddy. Soon, Reeves has one too; it's ex-hippie ice-cream trailer owner Amy Madigan (as Carla). The couple decide to kidnap Mr. Ward, for money…

The potentially interesting father/son dynamic never really amounts to much. Instead of working on its own, you're liable to flesh it out by thinking of how well the theme worked in other films. Writer/director Ron Nyswaner includes the intriguing potential for a one woman/two man familial relationship; not with Reeves' parents, of course, but in the proposition he receives near the film's end. The Pennsylvania locations are refreshing (check out the IGA), and Mr. Nyswaner gets good performances from his cast.

***** The Prince of Pennsylvania (5/15/88) Ron Nyswaner ~ Keanu Reeves, Fred Ward, Amy Madigan, Bonnie Bedelia

Back in 1988, before anybody had even *thought* of "The Matrix", "Speed", or even "Bill & Ted", a 23-year old Keanu Reeves got one of his first major parts in a studio movie, and in this Pittsburgh-shot production, he gives what could be one of his best performances ever (certainly better than a lot of the stuff he's been doing lately).

The troubled teen (or "post-teen") Rupert is having problems at home, where his controlling father Gary (Fred Ward, "Tremors") is ruining the family-life with his narrow minded approach to everything has already destroyed his own marriage, leading his wife Pam (Bonnie Bedelia, "Die Hard") to have an affair with Gary's best friend Jack (Jeff Hayenga).

Rupert wants his mother to have a happy life, and therefore decides to kidnap his father, in order to get him to sell some land he had inherited, and thus get enough money to provide for both himself and his mother (and his younger brother Roger), when they escape the dead-end that is their current home (in Pennsylvania).

Rupert has an affair with an older woman (Amy Madigan, "Streets of Fire"), much to the annoyance of her ex-husband Joe (Jay O. Sanders, "The Day After Tomorrow"), who wants Rupert to shape up and clean his act. But Rupert doesn't want to grow up and become a miner like his dad, and tries everything he can to escape being stuck in nowhere.. one of these things being kidnapping his dad.. but who can/will pay the ransom? You'll have to see it to find out..

This is a very touching movie, kinda like "Feeling Minnesota"/"My Own Private Idaho", but different.. at least Reeves has a weird haircut in this one, which looks pretty funny.. I give it 8/10, because it's an underrated gem, which really deserves to be seen before it fades into oblivion.

P.S: I found my copy on an old used VHS-cassette, but I'm sure there's a decent DVD-release somewhere in the world..

What a great movie. Great find at the video store. Keanu Reeves is tremendous and so is Fred Ward. Why do kids rebel. See this and you'll laugh about it. Though 10years old it feels current. Where has this movie been hiding.

This movie has to be the best movie that no one has ever heard of. It has an all-star cast, great acting, and an entertaining story line. For anyone whose parents didn't understand why you didn't "fit in"... This movie is for you.

This unlikely sleeper poses an essential question for disenchanted teenagers: is quality time with your family better than being chained to the door of a refrigerator? For coal-miner's son Keanu Reeves the answer is a no-brainer: his father is a Vietnam War veteran turned ultra-conservative; his feisty mother is having an affair with dad's best buddy; and his only friend is a socially marginalized, die-hard hippie. Meanwhile everyone thinks Reeves has problems, but he's only trying to avoid conforming to Middle America's messy ideas about normality. And since a rebel in the 1980s needs some sort of cause, he invents one: kidnapping his own father and holding him hostage. There's more than one contrivance in the otherwise original and unpredictable screenplay: the young protagonist's mechanical aptitude and closet intellect (he likens himself to Socrates, who was killed for daring to tell the truth) don't fit his delinquent image, and the kidnapping scheme carries the plot too far into fantasy. But if nothing else the film is an offbeat satire of modern domestic friction, and a refreshing change of pace from the usual condescending screen treatments of adolescent angst.