Loverboy (2005)

Most people are defined to some extent by their ambitions. What they want to be drives their lives. While this is normally a good thing sometimes even the most laudable of goals can become horribly twisted. One of the most natural goals for a woman is to be a mother. The bond between mother and child is special, almost sacred. The film ‘Loverboy’ explores the situation when this relationship becomes warped beyond any reason. When the strength of the maternal instinct is fixed solely on the child neither the parent of offspring can have any hope of a normal life.

For as long as she can remember Emily (Kyra Sedgwick) has wanted only one thing, to be a mother. During her own childhood young Emily (Sosie Bacon) had to put up with her narcissistic and highly oversexed parents, Marty (Kevin Bacon) and Sybil (Marisa Tomei). She never could get along with her folks; they clashed at nearly every opportunity. In one scene young Emily completely embarrasses her parents at school with her a cappella rendition of the David Bowie song ‘Life on Mars’. The lyrics "But her mummy is yelling ‘No’, and her daddy has told her to go, but her friend is nowhere to be seen" cuts a little too close to home for the parents. Her father is always on the prowl even when with his daughter. He even tries to pick up a woman (Sandra Bullock) who was once nice to his daughter. For him his child is just another ploy to cheat. The only thing Emily seems to have going for her as she grows to adulthood is being independently wealthy. While this frees her from the mundane need for a job it also gives her far too much time to indulge herself. Emily decides even though she needs to be a mother she vows never to repeat the mistakes her parents made with her. She wants to become a single mother devoid of the ‘harmful’ influences of a co-parent. To this end she sets off to be inseminated by any man who appears to be in good health and intelligent. The way Emily figures it many partners translates to no father. If she is unable to pin down just whose ‘donation’ resulted in her child then there is no father at all. The film moves ahead to when Emily is living with her six year old son Paul (Dominic Scott Kay) who she affectionately and somewhat creepily calls ‘Loverboy’. Despite the unnatural attention constantly given by his mother Paul somehow manages to be a fairly normal kid. Emily sees nothing normal in her child. She wants him to be exceptional in every aspect of life. She also wants him to be exclusively hers. The play together, placing bright purple handprints on the wall in wild abandon. My mother would have pitched a fit it I even went near our walls with a crayon but for Emily anything Paul does is angelic. The darker side of Emily’s attention is made evident with how she treats her son in public. She becomes upset at the slightest friendly move towards her son by anyone other than herself. She takes the over possessive mother role way over the line. It is almost a physical assault when Paul interacts with any other person.

Admittedly this is far from a perfect film. Besides the unnerving subject matter it is too choppy to completely hold together. The shifting of the chronological order of events may have been to keep the audience on edge and it does but it also breaks the continuity of the story telling. What is interesting here is the character study of Emily. Her distant parents are offered up as the etiology of her emotional problems. What should have been explored more is she was just a freaky child who grew up to be one messed up adult. Emily takes the wrong track when she decides to be the opposite of her parents. Instead of being an open caring mother she moves right up to line and happily goes right past it. There is juxtaposition between how she treats men and her treatment of her son. With men they are just disposable commodities. They have only one use and then she moves on. She is unable to form any adult relationships at all. This results in the need for such interaction to be supplied by her young son. It is amazing that Paul is a well adjusted as he is. You would expect him to be a young Norman Bates in the making. You almost expect the film to end with a grown up Paul talking to the stuffed body of Emily. Instead Paul wants what every kid wants, friends his own age. This is denied to him by Emily in her quest to have Paul as the center of her world.

This is truly a family affair. Kevin Bacon makes his freshman effort behind the camera as the director. He does well especially with the use of Dutch angles to maintain an off kilter feeling with the audience. He can’t resist using the age old ploy of directors by appearing in the film himself as Emily’s emotionally abusive father. His wife Kyra Sedgwick does give a dramatic if over the top performance as Emily. She presents her character as a woman who rebels against her parents by over compensating with her son. Cast in the role of young Emily is the daughter of Kyra and Kevin, Sosie. For her first film this was a difficult part but she demonstrates her genetic acting ability well. With such a strange role as her first she can certainly tackle anything her career may throw at her. Keeping with the family motif here is Kevin’s brother Michael who scores the film and their son Travis who has a small part. Speaking of smaller roles it seems that every famous friend of the Bacon’s had a free day and was able to act in a cameo. Such excellent actors as Matt Dillion, Blair Brown and Oliver Platt show up in the most unexpected of places. It has to be noted that Dominic Scott Kay does an excellent job as Paul. This is an intense role and he is opposite an experience actress but he more than holds in own in every scene. He has a natural talent that comes across with a great performance.

Not only does Universal Studios have a fantastic collection of blockbuster hits and classic television series for release to DVD they pay attention to the smaller, less known titles like this one. The anamorphic 1.78:1 video is well done. There is a natural color balance and contrast that gives a realistic feel to the piece. The Dolby 5.1 audio is excellent especially with all the period music that fills the film. There is an audio commentary with Kevin Bacon that is interesting. He details the changes necessary to move from one side of the camera to the other. While this film could have been better it does make for an interesting evening. Just make sure the kids are tucked away before you start it up.

Posted 9/16/06