If this is the future, show me BB's classics aisle

Rating: 2/10 (31 October 1999)

Perhaps I am dating myself, which at 28 is rapidly becoming easy to do, but I can remember a time in movie history when 17-year-old actresses were not required to appear as partially nude nymphettes in order to tantalize the audience, and the hero of a movie was honorable. "That's the point; there are no heros in this movie" is what some might argue, but I disagree. We were supposed to find Lester's cynicism and disdain amusing, like a child's tantrum. And our ethical hero acted chivalrously after all: after he had seduced his daughter's 16-year-old so-called friend (or she him), he chose not to take advantage of her merely because she admitted to being a virgin. Annette Bening's character, however, was quite believable and though she was painfully neurotic, at least she felt a sense of responsibility for keeping things together--even if superficially so. This movie did resort to a few cliches, like the gay homophobic ex-Marine, and the timing of the final seduction scene--pan to crying, vulnerable nymphette; enter Lester the Molester. OK, it's time now to get off my soapbox. It just saddens me to see how popular this movie is, and that the audiences want more.