LOVERBOY is a deceptive feature. It starts quite cheerfully, introducing us to the free spirit that Emily is as she moves from man to man, trying to have a son, and failing each time. The movie seems to be trying to present Emily as this ultimate feminist -- a woman who has the means to live independent from a man's company, who is unabashedly sexual and maybe a little dangerous. She's even tried artificial insemination -- it's one of the movie's first scenes as a matter of fact -- to no avail. Even her voice-over seems rather upbeat... until she begins to display hints of a less balanced personality. The fact the is aggressively trying to become a mother -- the seed of many fathers is equal to having no actual face, no actual gene to trace her son back to, so she philosophizes -- is but the seed of a greater evil, one that involves the fruit of her loins.
The appearance of a kind man (Campbell Scott in a brief scene) is the catalyst for her motherhood to take effect. Of course, predictably, she takes the money and runs as far as she can, purchasing a house in cash, and letting loose her inner demons where she begins to call her son "Loverboy" (hence, the movie's title). It's a subtle but shocking left turn that discloses the real pathos that was always there. Emily wants no man in her life because she is literally saving herself for the one man who will come from within her: it's a symbolic way of securing the ties between two people, and an extreme one. Her boy is tied to her through the placental cord from which she has fed him, now he will be hers in every possible way. What she ignores is that "Loverboy" grows increasingly independent from her. Every tug of her possessiveness garners an equally reactive tug of assertiveness from Paul who almost comes to hate her. The appearance of external elements -- a father figure under the form of Matt Dillon, a school system that is battling her monstrous motherhood, and her own hurt child who was barbarously neglected by her disco-dancing parents (Kevin Bacon and Marisa Tomei) and abandoned by a neighbor who acted as a mother figure (Sandra Bullock) -- drive Emily to the edge of sanity.
LOVERBOY is an actress' dream movie: one that can allow her to display her range in a character that has many levels of femininity, some initially rather thrilling, others quite frightening. Emily is a marked woman whose wounds have not healed with time, and Kyra Sedgwick, an actress who has had moderate success, finds a powerful role here. She is in nearly every shot, and where another less subtle actress might have overdone the moment Emily's damaged psyche surfaces, Sedgwick maintains a certain beauty, a certain elegance even when her resolution is horrific. Kevin Bacon has made a haunting movie, one that has depth, a strong visual sense, and doesn't shy away from its dark heart for the sake of satisfying a wider audience.
The appearance of a kind man (Campbell Scott in a brief scene) is the catalyst for her motherhood to take effect. Of course, predictably, she takes the money and runs as far as she can, purchasing a house in cash, and letting loose her inner demons where she begins to call her son "Loverboy" (hence, the movie's title). It's a subtle but shocking left turn that discloses the real pathos that was always there. Emily wants no man in her life because she is literally saving herself for the one man who will come from within her: it's a symbolic way of securing the ties between two people, and an extreme one. Her boy is tied to her through the placental cord from which she has fed him, now he will be hers in every possible way. What she ignores is that "Loverboy" grows increasingly independent from her. Every tug of her possessiveness garners an equally reactive tug of assertiveness from Paul who almost comes to hate her. The appearance of external elements -- a father figure under the form of Matt Dillon, a school system that is battling her monstrous motherhood, and her own hurt child who was barbarously neglected by her disco-dancing parents (Kevin Bacon and Marisa Tomei) and abandoned by a neighbor who acted as a mother figure (Sandra Bullock) -- drive Emily to the edge of sanity.
LOVERBOY is an actress' dream movie: one that can allow her to display her range in a character that has many levels of femininity, some initially rather thrilling, others quite frightening. Emily is a marked woman whose wounds have not healed with time, and Kyra Sedgwick, an actress who has had moderate success, finds a powerful role here. She is in nearly every shot, and where another less subtle actress might have overdone the moment Emily's damaged psyche surfaces, Sedgwick maintains a certain beauty, a certain elegance even when her resolution is horrific. Kevin Bacon has made a haunting movie, one that has depth, a strong visual sense, and doesn't shy away from its dark heart for the sake of satisfying a wider audience.