Movie Review: Lucas
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What Parents Should Know
This well acted and well-scripted 80s coming-of age film
will be too adult for most kids under 12. Older kids get hooked
by the appealing characters. We recommend an adult watch this
one with them and discuss questionable behavior, including
mockery, lying and teen drinking. Parents are absent from
children's lives.
This film looks realistically at the issues teens encounter daily. Families may want to discuss how their own teen children's experience may mirror Lucas's. How do they deal with rejection? How do they reject others out-of-hand?
Common Sense Media Review
This quirky coming-of-age story takes its time developing
but ultimately packs a heart-warming punch. Terrific acting by
a young cast and an understated comic sensibility make this
mid-80s sleeper a winner.
Lucas (Corey Haim) is an "accelerated" (by two grades) 14-year-old boy with a passion for insects. One day, he meets the newly arrived Maggie (Kerri Green) and the two become friends. They play tennis (he's terrible) and sneak into classical music concerts. Wanting to impress her, he lies about his family background and pretends to be friends with the popular kids. But when school starts, Lucas is humiliated at the first pep rally.
Then, to Lucas's horror, Maggie falls for the school quarterback (Charlie Sheen). Lucas talks his way onto the team in a last-ditch attempt to win Maggie, but he fumbles the big pass and is crushed in a pile-on. However, his bravado wins over even the jocks who had called him a freak. The team gives him a cool jacket; Lucas is ecstatic.
A coming of age movie that deals honestly with the highs and lows of adolescent life, at first glance, it might resemble a kids sports movie like The Mighty Ducks. But take another look. Films like that build to a big game in which characters prove their worth by pulling together and winning, whereas Lucas's real victory is being himself. It is closer in theme to a smart teen romance like Say Anything.
While Lucas is discovering himself, the movie finds plenty of laughs in his desperate antics. It never ridicules him, though. You may cringe at his outrageous behavior but you will totally sympathize with him. That's because no matter how clever Lucas is at covering the pain of being rejected, he is still the outsider who desperately wants to fit in. You'd be hard pressed to find a child or adult who can't relate with that feeling.
The supporting characters are impressively complex as well. In most films of this sort, Charlie Sheen's football player would be the obvious villain. Playing against the stereotypical cold-hearted jock, Sheen's character looks out for Lucas, even while he is falling for the girl Lucas loves.
The casting is good all around. Excellent early performances from Haim and Sheen, and Winona Rider in her film debut, do much to place this football/teen romance a cut above most.
Common Sense Media is a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing information to help parents make media and entertainment choices for their families.
