Loverboy (1989 film)

Infobox Film
name = Loverboy


image_size = 200px
caption = "Loverboy" theatrical poster
producer = Gary Foster
Willie Hunt
director = Joan Micklin Silver
writer = Robin Schiff
Tom Ropelewski
Leslie Dixon
starring = Patrick Dempsey
Kate Jackson
Kirstie Alley
Carrie Fisher
Robert Ginty
music = Michel Colombier
cinematography = John Hora
editing = Rick Shaine
distributor = TriStar Pictures
released = 28 April 1989
(North America)
country = United States
runtime = 98 min.
language = English
amg_id = 1:30376
imdb_id = 0097790

"For the 2005 film, see Loverboy (film)"

"Loverboy " is a 1989 American comedy film starring Patrick Dempsey, Kirstie Alley and Carrie Fisher.

Plot

Randy Bodek (Dempsey) is a rebellious slacker in college, living with his girlfriend Jenny (Nancy Valen). His father, furious over Randy's lack of direction or work ethic, pulls the funding for college and requires Randy to come back home and get a job. Randy eventually finds work as a pizza delivery boy at Señor Pizza, but his pitiful earnings will not allow him to fund college on his own and he despairs of being able to return to Jenny next semester. In his capacity as delivery boy, he soon makes the acquaintance of a middle-aged, wealthy Italian woman: Alex Barnett (Barbara Carrera), who pampers and seduces him. She and Randy enjoy a quiet, brief, passionate affair before she must return to Italy. During the affair, Randy's increasingly stylish appearance, unusually chipper demeanor and gifts being delivered by a handsome Italian co-worker of Randy's (signed "Love, Alex"), inspire Randy's father to believe his son is gay.

Eventually, Alex must return to Italy. Randy is disappointed: he has enjoyed his relationship with Alex, both for the lavish gifts of money and expensive clothing, and for the experience at pleasing women he can bring to his relationship with Jenny upon returning to college. Alex tells him on their last night together that the next time Señor Pizza receives a delivery order for pizza with extra anchovies, it will be her summoning him again. The extra anchovy topping was Randy's cue that Alex was calling on him for a rendez-vous during their relationship.

The next order for extra anchovies comes not from Alex, however, but from an unhappily married Asian woman: Kyoko Bruckner. Her husband Harry hired Randy's father to oversee the construction of a building for him, and is nearly a caricature: he is vulgar, loud, obnoxious, overweight, overbearing, and married Kyoko only for her submissiveness to his whims with no care for her feelings. Though it is unclear how they knew one another, Alex gave Kyoko the "extra anchovy" cue to contact Randy and engage in an affair while Harry is away at work all day. Randy is initially startled and uncertain, but does make love with Kyoko out of concern for her misery and isolation. From Kyoko, he learns even more about pleasing women who are in misery and isolation, and about the critical importance of taking things slowly in the boudoir.

Randy's next customer is Dr. Joyce Palmer, who has a thriving womens' health practice and hears about Randy from Kyoko. She calls upon Randy in an effort to get revenge against her husband, Dr. Reed Palmer. Her husband, it seems, has been having an affair with a nurse at the hospital where he works. Randy balks at Joyce's matter-of-fact attitude (and her insistence on opening the window blinds while they are undressing, allowing the gardeners to see into the bedroom). Clumsily upsetting a carefully arranged display of glass vases and spheres, Randy and Joyce dissolve into laughter at the absurdity of the situation. Randy begins to learn ballroom dancing from Joyce: a passion of hers that Reed no longer indulges. From this, Randy learns the important lesson: not all of a woman's needs are "sexual." Joyce teaches him that paying attention to those needs is important to a woman's sense of power, along with her overall sexual confidence.

The next delivery is to Monica Delancy. She explains that she is lonely, isolated, and feels under-appreciated by her husband, who hardly gives any notice of her aspirations to be a photographer. She is married to a fitness coach who spends his days immersed in strict healthy eating guidelines and hard bodies working out. Monica feels that she cannot tell Claude (her husband) that she feels smothered by his preoccupation with fitness, outclassed by the beautiful, fit women Claude trains, and guilty over her predeliction for red meat, good liquor and cigarettes. It turns out that Monica is also a patient of Joyce's, and her husband Claude is Joyce's fitness trainer. Randy begins taking photos of Monica with her own camera, making her feel beautiful despite age lines, sagging flesh, and cellulite for the first time in years. In return, Randy learns from Monica that women have deep-seated insecurities about their attractive qualities and their sense of control, especially as they age. He learns that not all beauty is quantified by cosmetic "enhancements," muscle tone, and wrinkle-free skin.

Through Kyoko and Monica's acquaintances, and the women Joyce recommends to Randy among her patients, Randy soon has a thriving escort business, all based in the ordering of extra anchovy pizzas for delivery. One hilarious exception is a woman whose family genuinely likes anchovies on their pizza: Randy is nearly undressed in the foyer when he hears the woman calling for her children, and scrambles to redress and leave. Sal, Señor Pizza's manager, remains clueless that Randy's absence for hours at a time or the sharp increase in anchovy orders are at all related, and never questions the otherwise inexplicably long time it takes Randy to deliver his orders. Randy's coworker Henry is aware of Randy's side business and covers for him whenever possible, finding the entire situation startling but exciting and providential. Tony, a ladies' man due to his Italian accent, charm, and handsomely moused hair, is unaware of Randy's situation as well. But he is easygoing enough to ignore what his coworkers do, and he is all to eager to ply his European talents while romancing the younger female customers who swoon over him.

Things begin coming to a head when Harry comes home in the middle of the day while Randy is bathing with Kyoko. Becoming suspicious, Harry searches the house for Kyoko's lover, but Randy manages to escape unseen. Flipping through Kyoko's datebook, Harry finds appointments for "Dr. Palmer" and assumes "he" is Kyoko's lover (in reality, Joyce is Kyoko's doctor). Harry tracks down Reed Palmer based on this false assumption and discovers that he and Reed both have unfaithful wives. Reed came to the conclusion that Joyce was having an affair based upon the reappearance of Joyce's Frank Sinatra records. Harry talks Reed into being willing to confront their wives' lovers, not yet realizing their wives are seeing the same man. Reed leads Harry to Claude's home. They attempt to break into the house as Claude comes up the walk, and Claude resignedly accepts this as part of his bad-luck streak: he knows of Monica's affair as well, though how he knows is never specified.

In an attempt to pin down who is sleeping with their wives, the three husbands go through their wives' financial statements and credit card bills. Claude spots a charge to Señor Pizza and finds this odd, stating that Monica hates pizza. Reed sees five charges on Joyce's statements as well; Harry finds page after page of them. Incensed, they drive to Señor Pizza to confront the delivery boy who is apparently sleeping with all three of their wives.

Meanwhile, Jenny has come to town to surprise Randy, and has learned from Jory, a rival of Randy and Henry's (played by Dylan Walsh) that Randy is seeing other women without her knowledge. Randy is not there, having received an order for extra anchovies.

This is the culmination of a subplot involving Randy's parents. Fighting over Joe Bodek's high-handed removal of their son from college and seeming dismay over Randy's supposed homosexuality, the rift between he and his wife Diane is widened further by what appears to be evidence that Joe is having an affair with his assistant, Linda. After hearing street prostitutes in the background of a phone conversation and assuming Joe hired them, Diane weeps over the situation to her doctor, Joyce Palmer. Joyce, not realizing that Randy is Diane's son, gives her the Señor Pizza card and the extra anchovy cue. Diane orders the extra anchovies, and, while Jenny is being informed that Randy is seeing other women at the pizza parlor, Randy has arrived at a motel only to discover that his mother is his intended liaison. He flees through the motel room's bathroom window before she can see him and hurries back to Señor Pizza. There, he gives the pizza to Tony and tells him to deliver it in his stead. He further instructs Tony to tell the customer that they are out of anchovies. Tony protests, but Randy vanishes to find Henry and Tony speeds off on his moped to deliver the pizza to Diane.

Upon finding Henry, Randy is informed that Jenny had been here and Jory had told her about the other women. Randy and Jory go out back of Señor Pizza to fight, but the husbands arrive intent on assaulting Randy. They grab Randy and are about to rough him up when Harry realizes that Randy is Joe Bodek's son; Joe had told Harry during a semi-drunken conversation that he believes Randy to be gay, and Harry dismisses him as a suspect on those grounds. The husbands then assault an unsuspecting Jory.

Tony arrives at Diane's motel room, and Diane flings herself blindly into a kiss with him. Tony resigns himself to the fact that yet another woman is throwing herself at him sexually and begins to unbutton his shirt, but Diane loses her nerve and asks him to leave. Suddenly inflamed by the idea that a woman can resist him, Tony declares himself in love with Diane and pursues her as she dresses, hops into her car, and drives to the Hawaiian themed anniversary party she and her husband had planned at a local restaurant.

Randy has found Jenny and has confessed all to her: not only the women, but the money and the reasons he agreed to become a paid escort. Jenny is hurt and uncertain she wants to continue her relationship with Randy, but agrees to come with him to his parents' anniversary party when Randy realizes that he should intervene to save their marriage. Harry, Reed and Claude follow Jory to the party and Tony pursues Diane there, where the party dissolves into melee. Harry, Reed and Claude are arrested for assault, Diane finds out that Randy was the original delivery boy, Joe forgives Randy and agrees to fund college again, and Randy shows Jenny his newly acquired skill for dance. Jory leaves humiliated when he discovers that his own mother, who is attending Joe and Diane's party, was one of Randy's customers. Tony, easygoing as ever, abandons his pursuit of Diane upon finding out she is happily married and Randy's mother, and begins dancing with Joe's assistant, Linda.

The final scene before credits roll takes place at the jail, with Randy giving a voice-over regarding the three arrested husbands:

Monica bailed Claude out, they forgave each other, and they left to heal their marriage.Joyce bailed Reed out, they exchanged slaps to the face, and agreed to move past the incident and attempt to work things out.Kyoko arrived intending to bail Harry out, but changed her mind and left Harry to sit in jail and enjoy her freedom from his domineering ways. She uses the money to leave him instead.

Randy and Jenny are seen dancing as the credits roll.

Cast

External links

*imdb title|0097790