Themes: Boarding School Life, Age Disparity Romance
Main Cast: Rob Lowe, Jacqueline Bisset, Andrew McCarthy, Stuart Margolin, Cliff Robertson
Release Year: 1983
Country: US
Run Time: 120 minutes
MPAA Rating: R
Plot
With a plot that is a cross between a teen, low-brow farce and a coming-of-age story, Class opens with scenes of two best friends -- nerdy whiz Jonathan (Andrew McCarthy) and carefree jock Skip (Rob Lowe) -- going around in lingerie; they also barf on a double date, break into a quiet meeting at a girls' school, and generally behave as emotional throwbacks. But when the nerd Jonathan is picked up in a Chicago bar by Skip's mother Ellen (Jacqueline Bisset), the tone changes completely. The affair between the student and the older woman is torrid until they rendezvous in New York and Ellen dumps Jonathan because she finds out he is not a Ph.D. candidate from Northwestern University. Meanwhile, Jonathan does not know who Ellen is until Skip brings him home for the Christmas holidays and the two clandestine, September-May ex-lovers come face to face with the truth. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
John Cusack - Roscoe; Alan Ruck - Roger; Rodney Pearson - Allen; Virginia Madsen - Lisa; Deborah Thalberg - Susan; Mike Bacarella - Man (Beer can); Dick Cusack - Chaplain Baker; Joan Cusack - Julia; Lolita Davidovich - 1st Girl (motel); Anna Maria Horsford - Maggie; Gary Houston - Salesman; John Kapelos - Bellman; Lance Kinsey - Dog Trainer; Virginia Morris - Mrs. Delowie; Bruce Norris - Student; Fern Persons - Headmistress DeBroul; Remak Ramsay - Kennedy; Maria Ricossa - Table Friend; Casey Siemaszko - Doug; Aaron Douglas Zuber - Barry; Dean Hill - Bar Patron; Wayne Kneeland - Student; Meg Thalken - Bar Patron; Bruno Aclin - Bartender; Hal Frank - Schneider; Nancy Serlin; George Womack - Liquor Store Proprietor
Credit
John S. Poplin - Art Director, Jack Poplin - Art Director, David Greenwalt - Associate Producer, M. James Kouf Jr. - Associate Producer, Donfeld - Costume Designer, Scott Maitland - First Assistant Director, L. Andrew Stone - First Assistant Director, Lewis John Carlino - Director, Dennis E. Dolan - Editor, Stuart H. Pappe - Editor, Cathleen Summers - Executive Producer, Elmer Bernstein - Composer (Music Score), Tom Scott - Composer (Music Score), Ric Waite - Cinematographer, Martin Ransohoff - Producer, Cathleen Summers - Producer, William Fosser - Set Designer, David Greenwalt - Screenwriter, M. James Kouf Jr. - Screenwriter
Jonathan is sent by prep-school roommate Skip to a Chicago bar to meet a girl and gain sexual experience. He is picked up by Ellen, a beautiful older woman, and has an affair with her. Over Christmas break at the Burroughs' estate, he discovers that Ellen is Skip's mother.
Reception
Variety said "Class is anything but classy....[It] seems something like an unofficial remake of one of Bisset's first Hollywood efforts, the 1969 The First Time.[1]Vincent Canby wrote "The movie can't make up its mind whether it's a lighthearted comedy, set in what appears to be a posh New England-style prep school just outside Chicago, or a romantic drama about a teen-age boy who has a torrid affair with his roommate's mother. Either way it's pretty awful." [2]Roger Ebert gave the film 2 out of 4 stars and said it was a "prep-school retread of The Graduate that knows some of its scenes are funny and some are serious, but never figures out quite how they should go together"; The film is "entertaining when it's not dealing with its real subject matter, painful when it is, and agonizing when it confuses rigid mortification with humor."[3]
Quotes
Mr. Burroughs: Jonathan, you and I have something in common. Can you guess what that might be?
Skip Burroughs: [to Jonathan] You ever wonder if your parents still 'do it'?
