Hooking up with a much older woman has unforeseen consequences for a shy prep school student in this comedy featuring Jacqueline Bisset as the older woman in question. The film is well known nowadays for a twist regarding Bisset's identity, but curiously enough, this twist does not come about until nearly an hour into the movie. The film actually works better before the twist is revealed with the focus instead on the very real bond that develops between roommates Andrew McCarthy and Rob Lowe who connect over a mutual love for practical gags and dislike of authority figures. Their first two pranks are in fact arguably the film's biggest highlights (a meeting gone awry at a sister school aside). Getting back to the twist, the key disappointment is that it is not milked for very many laughs, an awkward dinner table conversation aside. The tone of the film in fact shifts in a jolting manner from comedy to drama. Also, Bisset's motives and in particular, her persistence to carry on with McCarthy, do not quite ring true. That said, it is otherwise a solid late career performance for the Golden Globe winning actress. McCarthy and especially a charismatic and charming young Lowe steal the show though, and even with the plot twist, the overall film is about them coming to accept their faults and differences on the pathway to getting an education in life, and while abrupt, the ending perfectly captures just how genuine their friendship is. It is also interesting to see John Cusack and Alan Ruck younger than ever before and Cliff Robertson is always good to have on hand.
