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LOVERBOY Send This Review to a Friend
Kyra Sedgwick gives a convincingly disturbing performance as a single mom who grows increasingly psychopathic in “Loverboy,” an offbeat film directed by Kevin Bacon. It is a most uncomfortable, unpleasant tale that winds up with a horrific resolution that leaves one unsettled. But there is no doubt about the quality of Sedgwick’s performance and Bacon’s dedication to making a film true to itself from the screenplay By Hannah Shakespeare, based on the novel by Victoria Redel.
Sedgwick plays Emily, whose experiences in childhood have led her to want to be a single mom. She shuns the idea of a one-man relationship, and sleeps with a series of men in order to have a child that is hers and hers alone.
Paul, the boy she gives birth to, grows up in a vise of possessiveness that is cruel and stifling. Her calling him Loverboy is enough to make one cringe. Emily panics as Paul enters an age where there are other associations in his life. Each one becomes a threat to Emily’s warped domination. She cannot face the prospect of his moving in a world of his own and out of her grasp.
Her mind becomes a fortress against what she perceives as dangerous intruders. Emily is one sick lady, and you know there cannot be a good ending.
Bacon and Marisa Tomei play Emily’s parents as lovebirds in flashbacks that trace Emily’s feelings of being left out and set the stage for her weird development. One can admire the acting, but find the film off-putting despite its expertise. A THINKFilm release.
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