Quick Look: Lucas (1986)

People in the Movie: Corey Haim (The Lost Boys, License to Drive), Charlie Sheen (Major League, Hot Shots), Kerri Green (The Goonies), Winona Ryder (Edward Scissorhands, Heathers), Courtney Thorne-Smith (TV's Melrose Place, TV's Ally McBeal), Jeremy Piven (PCU, TV's Entourage)
Director: David Seltzer
Pigeonhole: High School Drama / Coming of Age / Teen Romance

The Plot: **spoiler alert** Lucas (Haim) is a nerdy 14 year old tweener who meets Maggie (Green) when she moves into the neighborhood, in the summer.  Maggie is at least a year or two older than Lucas, but despite this age separation, they become fast friends and hang out constantly until school starts.  The audience sees that Lucas' feelings for Maggie are a little deeper than friendship, although Maggie seems oblivious.
At school Lucas seems to be on the receiving end of taunts and bullying, mostly at the hands of two football players named Bruno and Spike (Piven), despite his friendship with the football team's quarterback, Cappie (Sheen).  Maggie quickly develops a crush on Cappie and joins the cheerleading squad to be closer to him, much to the chagrin of Cappie's girlfriend Alise (Thorne-Smith).  Lucas gets upset that Maggie is no longer spending lots of time with him and becomes jealous of her growing attraction to Cappie.  Lucas later embarrasses himself further by assuming Maggie will "automatically" go with him to an upcoming school dance - only for us to later witness Maggie and Cappie kiss that same night while Lucas looks on.  In the periphery of this heartbreaking scene we see one of Lucas' friends named Rina (Ryder) giving Lucas advice, and that she has feeling for Lucas - but Lucas is oblivious to this, much as Maggie is oblivious to his feelings.
In a final desperate attempt to win Maggie's affections, Lucas suits up to play football and heads out onto the field in the middle of a game, only to get a head injury, mainly because the equipment was too big for him.  At the conclusion on the film, Lucas and Maggie agree to reconcile their friendship, and Lucas earns the respect of his previous tormentors. 
My Thoughts: Lucas is an oft-overlooked 80's film that not only had a sizable cast of future stars, but may be one of Corey Haim's best dramatic performances.  It is very much a feel good movie, but where Lucas breaks down for me was the complete lack of comic moments that usually are found in the high school romantic films.  It seems that Lucas is meant to be the lovable loser, and that his station is created by his own foolish choices - albeit from a first "crush".  I think Haim did an outstanding job in the lead role and was very believable, especially in his moments of letdown.  Another strange reveal for me was after Lucas was injured at the football game (and in the hospital at this point), Rina tells Maggie and Cappie that Lucas lived in the trailer park and that his dad was basically "not around", likely due to alcoholism.  I am not sure if this was meant to have us, the audience, feel more sympathy for Lucas, or if it was meant to highlight the fact that Lucas' supposed friends really were not, in fact, his friends.  Either way, this element felt a little melancholy to me, and really brought the mood down a notch. 
I am glad the movie was able to come full circle, but had this film be able to incorporate a few more light or comic moments, it could have easily joined Sixteen Candles or Just One of the Guys as an excellent 80's high school movie.

Extras:
- The movie was originally going to be produced as an 'R' rated film.  I cannot figure out where the 'R' rating would have come from, other than language, because none of the subject matter really lends itself to an 'R' rating.