A Brilliant Conflict

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

Lulu McAfee (Melanie Griffith) runs away from her San Francisco group home for schizophrenics. Her ex Ben Clifton (Patrick Swayze) is a frustrated failing TV writer and married to psychiatrist Claire (Penelope Ann Miller). He is not happy to have Lulu back in his life. She tells him that they have a son together. He drives her to Wisconsin to meet their son on his 16th birthday but she has an accomplice lying for her. Meanwhile, Claire flies to join them.Patrick Swayze is playing against type as a meek writer type. It doesn't really work especially with his character being different in his flashback. Pairing him with a schizophrenic Griffith is frustrating. It's very unlikely that he can't see through her charade. All he has to do is to ask her for the phone number. The romance simply doesn't work for me. The duo is improved with the addition of Claire. I just don't find the central relationship that compelling.

Again. Does she ever fail? If you are reading this 'girl', please keep your humility - therein lies your brilliance and genuine qualities.How can you build a movie around one actor? You have to get the perfect actor-actress and then find the right script.This isn't a great movie. No. But watch the girl. Melanie is no youngster, but her spirit is too young, too brilliant to hide!You can't avoid watching her. She is compelling. Few players can match her on any level. Thespian espectacular!So, enjoy performance, even though a lot of the other film elements don't rise to excellence. Melanie is superb, and is she ever bad? It takes a very special quality of commitment to excel and elate when the material around you is only mediocre.

This was another one of the DVDs that I got when I purchased the DVD player and as before I watched any of the films that were there I thought oh great these are going to be a bunch of rubbish films just thrown in to make the company look like it gives good offers! I'm a big fan of Patrick anyways and thats what made me watch this first. When it first started I thought hmm this is interesting pretty slow moving but after that I thought it was a great well written moving story.In the end I felt great that things had finally worked out for Lulu and that Ben had written finally a good book about there time together on the road trip to see there son. Yeah great film would say that everyone should watch it!

First, I just want to say what a marvelous job Melanie Griffith did in this movie! She lit up the screen. Like the other reviewer said, she has been in a string of great performances. Lolita, Another day in paradise, Crazy in Alabama, RKO 281, Cecil B. Demented, and now this. I'm so happy for Melanie that she has found the right roles and that she has her life on track.The story was great and it sort of reminded me of the old romance movies. Everything is subtle with just a twinge of romance. The ending will leave a smile on your face! Its just disappointing that it wasn't in theaters, but then again, the American public can't decide what is good, classy entertainment. Instead, we have garbage like Scary Movie and Nutty Professor 2 invading cinemas and making millions. Kudos to the cast, the director, and mostly Melanie. This is a keeper!