Loverboy (16 March 2006)
directed by Kevin Bacon
starring Kyra Sedgwick, Dominic Scott Kay, Kevin Bacon, Matt Dillon, Oliver Platt, Sandra Bullock, Campbell Scott, Marisa Tomei, Sosie Bacon, Travis Bacon, John Lafayette, Jessica Stone, Melissa Errico, Nancy Giles, Nicholas Kromka, Michael Kromka, Spencer Treat Clark
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MPAA rating: Studio: Bigel/Mailer Films, Millennium Films, Mixed Breed Films Script: Hannah Shakespeare Based on the book by: Victoria Redel Music: Michael Bacon Running time: 84 minutes Tags: artificial insemination; Drama; dysfunctional relationships; education; extramarital sex; mother-son relationships; novel adaptation; pregnancy; Romance; rowboats; suicide Tactical strength: [5/10]
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for sexuality
As a child, Emily (Sosie Bacon) had a very loving home. The problem: Emily's parents (Kevin Bacon and Marisa Tomei) were so much into loving each other (which in the context of the film involves multiple sessions of sexual intercourse every day) that they neglected their daughter. Her parents wouldn't recognize their neglect, believing that they had provided a loving home for their daughter.
Since Emily didn't get the love she sought from her family, she looked for a substitute. Her neighbor Mrs. Harker (Sandra Bullock) temporarily filled this role. Mrs. Harker encouraged Emily to assert herself, and we can see that young Emily wants to emulate Mrs. Harker. But even Emily's relationship with Mrs. Harker gets twisted. The last time Emily sees Mrs. Harker, she gives Emily a kiss more sexual than appropriate for a neighbor expressing fondness for a neighborhood child. The next time Emily tries to visit Mrs. Harker, Emily finds the Harker house empty. Emily can't get normal parental affection because of her parent's mutual obsession with sex, and the one person that seemed to provide a positive role model for Emily disappears suddenly.
As an adult, Emily (Kyra Sedgwick) wants nothing to do with traditional relationships. She uses sex entirely as a means to get pregnant, thinking that a child will provide her with something to love an a person that well lover he back unconditionally. Wanting to give her child the best possible father, she travels the nation in search of candidates with promising genetic traits and has sex with each candidate. Her plan does get her pregnant, but she miscarries. In the midst of a depression about losing the baby, she meets and has sex with a random man attending a convention in the same hotel where Emily has a room. So instead of selectively choosing the genetic traits her child, she conceives a child from a night of true passion.
Emily gives birth to Paul (Dominic Scott Kay), but she calls him "Loverboy." Emily focuses her entire life on Paul. She uses him as a replacement for the childhood love that she didn't receive, wants to raise him as a free-thinking individual unique from other children, and cannot stand to have Paul give his attention to anyone but her. To her credit, Emily fills Paul's young childhood with so much care and attention, that he grows up into a kind and intelligent child. But her desire to create a free-thinking individual begins to backfire as Paul starts to express interest in spending time with people other than Emily. At six, he starts to exhibit behaviors that Emily finds upsetting. He wants to play in the park with other children; he starts asking questions about his father; and he notices other kids going to school and wants to go to school with them.
In an attempt to keep Paul from going to school or associating with other people, Emily rents a cabin on a remote island that gets cut off from the mainland at high tide. But even in this remote location, the few people that live on the island with her display common neighborly friendliness that Emily cannot ignore. At a friendly lobster bake, Paul takes a particular liking to Mark (Matt Dillon), who over the next few days offers Paul experiences that Emily cannot provide, such as lessons in repairing a rowboat, sailing, and fishing.
Since Paul insists on attending school, Emily relents and they return home. Paul starts attending public school, but the separation from Paul during school hours makes Emily long for Paul. She starts to lie about Paul needing to stay home because of allergies. But worse than the separation, Paul likes his teacher and recites things that he learned in class. And probably the most severe wound to Emily's image of her relationship with her son, Paul insists on being called by his name and not "Loverboy." Emily can't stand that she no longer has exclusive control over Paul's education and that he wants to spend time with other people. She sees this loss as the initial stages of a loss similar to the one she suffered when Mrs. Harker suddenly disappeared, and she decides to take drastic action.
Kyra Sedgwick does an excellent job at demonstrating the various levels of grief she feels as her son grows into a more independent individual. Through her portrayal of Emily, you can easily understand and believe the motivation for Emily's final decision. Dominic does a fine job portraying a precocious six-year-old, which you would think comes naturally for a child, but too many performances by children leave a lot to be desired. The other actors' performances have such minimal screen time that you really can't make a judgment about the various actor's skills.
I'm not sure what message director Kevin Bacon wanted me to take away from his film. As a moral tale, Loverboy shows that both neglect and over-protectiveness create dysfunctional relationships. We don't really see any contrasting non-dysfunctional relationships, so we don't have a counter-example to know what Bacon thinks a good relationship looks like. Paul's characters seems to demonstrate that children have a natural instinct to balance out dysfunctional relationships by seeking to create relationships that provide more balance. But Bacon seems to imply that if those needs don't get met by a certain age, the dysfunction remains in place throughout adulthood. Emily's character fails to fulfill her need for love and affection since she doesn't really know where to find people that would give her the long-term affection that she needs. She didn't get the attention she needed as a child, and as an adult cannot form normal relationships.
Having received ample affection from his mother, Paul seeks relationships that emphasize his independence and uniqueness as an individual, as well as feeding his need for having a larger network of social interactions. In the final scene, we see a sixteen-year-old Paul sharing an experience with a girlfriend that he first shared with his mother. Perhaps because of all the love and attention Emily gave to Paul in his early childhood, he will break the cycle of dysfunctional relationships. Or perhaps because he gets away from his mother early enough and can form more normal social relationships, Paul will not pass on the dysfunction that cursed his mother and grandparents. But really the ending only confirms that Paul has internalized his early experiences with his mother and wants to share an experience that bonded him to his mother with his girlfriend. We don't have any guarantee that he won't have problems when trying to form adult relationships.
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