Lately I've found myself watching Canadian teenage comedies of the 80s and like another user had already mentioned; Isabelle Mejias was the main draw-card for digging this one up. Fans of the a glowing Mejias won't be disappointed, but others will find it nothing more than slightly amusing in a quirky sense, but still a cut and dry teen romantic comedy drama set on campus.
Andy Cooper is a small town country boy who leaves home for college to fulfil his artistic talent. There he finds out his room-mate is an eccentrically wealthy "ladies' man" (well that's what he likes to think) Dean and also encountering more oddities, but soon he's attracted to his fellow art student in Carrie Hanson. Not too long they're an item, but things kind of go pear shape when she leaves to see her parents for thanksgiving as Andy within that time falls to the seductive advances of his French art teacher. Carrie returns, but Andy can't let go of the affair and what progresses leaves Andy with some hard, but important decisions to make.
The story is quite bright and breezy (the first hour or so with its quickly witty dialogues and familiar antics well-timed) and then when the three-way love triangle forms. Is where the tone becomes unsure, as it gets bogged down (after introducing an array of rich characters coming and going --- fun performances from Jennifer Inch and Emmanuel Mark) and loses its way by taking a upon a more serious approach (finding your feet, making the right choices and sacrifice for love), even though the humour is there if only in a slight manner thanks mainly to the performance of Maury Chaykin as a softly spoken mob hit-man. Throughout there's plenty of sequences where the buoyant soundtrack gets a work out, by accompanying some sort of montage. Yep that's right
a scrapbook of montages. The performances fair up; Mejias has that down-to-earth charisma while opposite of her Kevin Hicks is quite good. A stunning Lori Hallier is every itch-perfect as the French art teacher Nicole Hubert (which the camera seems to gracefully frame) and Stephen Black is suitably cocky as Dean. While small-scale the production it's professionally catered for and comes up looking quite good.
