Review: Class

Andrew McCarthy is a somewhat self-conscious and quiet country boy attending a prep school on a scholarship. There he befriends his prankster roommate Rob Lowe, and gets up to all kinds of nonsense. Later McCarthy ends up meeting and romancing Jacqueline Bisset, a rich older woman he meets on a night out, trying to lose his virginity at Lowe’s urging. You can probably figure out where this all ends up. The various students are played by the likes of Alan Ruck, Casey Siemaszko, and a young John Cusack. Stuart Margolin and Cliff Robertson play humourless authority figures, the latter a rigid father figure to one of the students.  Virginia Madsen turns up briefly as one of McCarthy’s earlier (and unfortunately botched) attempts at sexual conquest.

Entertaining mixture of “Animal House” and “The Graduate” from 1983 featuring a bunch of up-and-coming 80s talent and a well-utilised Jacqui Bisset. It’s lightweight, but likeable and well-done with perhaps Andrew McCarthy’s best performance (I know that’s not saying much, but credit where it’s due), and possibly Lowe’s too. The charisma of Lowe is unmistakable here, whilst the sorely underrated Alan Ruck and a young John Cusack steal their every moment on screen. Lowe comes off particularly well in the first half playing the wild-and-crazy one to McCarthy’s sensitive nerd-ish character. In the second half, which is the more serious “Graduate”-esque portion of the film, he becomes a lot more serious and perhaps a bit less interesting, taking a backseat to McCarthy and Bisset. Still, both Lowe and McCarthy are extremely likeable here, which helps a lot. You care about these two characters, even if their fellow students are less fully realised in the script by Jim Kouf (“The Hidden”, “Stakeout”) and David Greenwalt (a veteran writer/director/producer of TV including writing three episodes of “The Wonder Years” and more extensive work on “Buffy” and “Angel”). Look out for a memorable appearance by Virginia Madsen as one of two women McCarthy and Lowe attempt to make it with early on. It’s funny stuff as McCarthy gets nervous and vomits on her, and in the next scene he embarrasses Madsen further, titty popping out included.

Although it means Lowe takes on a less prominent role, I actually appreciated the more serious second half of the film because I feared as amusing as the first half is, anymore of the private school hijinks and the film might’ve run out of steam or become irritating. I will say, as you may have already worked out, that while each of the films halves are fairly solid and add up to solid entertainment, the whole is perhaps a tad too lumpy in tone, never quite being seamless and smooth. It still works, just not nearly among the best of the ‘Brat Pack’ films (A term I think applies given the casting of Lowe, McCarthy, Ruck, and the two Cusacks).

Directed by Lewis John Carlino (co-screenwriter of “The Fox” and “The Mechanic”) this is almost by default the classiest of the ‘older woman, younger man’ sex comedies of the 80s, though it probably has just as much in common with “The Graduate”, “Animal House”, and “Risky Business” as it does with “Private Lessons” or “My Tutor”. Great cast of young talent, with McCarthy and Lowe especially good, and Jacqui Bisset is well-cast as well. Fine light entertainment if not reinventing the wheel, with the score by old pro Elmer Bernstein (“The Magnificent Seven”, “The Great Escape”) to match that sentiment. The film marked the cinematic debuts of McCarthy, Madsen, and John Cusack. 

Rating: B-