VALLEY GIRL (1983)
Reviewed by Jerry Saravia
It is tough to dislike Martha Coolidge's "Valley Girl" - it is easygoing, upbeat and winsome in its attitude. And yet it is nothing more than that. Even for a teen romantic comedy that doesn't aim for sexual innuendoes or gratuitous sex scenes, it is too mild, too laid-back an affair.
Deborah Foreman is Julie, the cute blonde chick of the movie, a Valley Girl high-school student who is getting bored with her schmuck of a boyfriend (Michael Bowen). She sets her eyes on a likable punk named Randy (Nicolas Cage) who doesn't wear pink polo shirts nor does he dance to, well, generic dance music. He is a Plimsouls man, goes to clubs and gets drunk and has sex a lot. He is interested in Julie because she is, well, cute I gather. Actually I did not quite get what the attraction was aside from Foreman having maybe more of an edge than her Valley girlfriends. So Julie and Randy hookup, eat out together, go to the beach, watch Romeo and Juliet at the movies and generally have fun. Unfortunately, Julie's ex is not happy and there is the standard peer pressure about dumping Randy so Julie can reconnect with her clique and get to be Prom Queen or something.
"Valley Girl" is an ostensibly sweet little movie but it is also mediocre and has two leads who have no chemistry together (Cage has never been much of a romantic leading man). It is too simple a movie, too eager to please and ends without ever revving its engine to go somewhere we haven't gone before. The best performances are by Frederic Forrest and Colleen Camp as Julie's parents (and health food shop owners) who are more thoughtful and realistic than most other parents seen in these movies. They want Julie to be happy, to roam free, to be herself. I wish the movie was about them.
