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16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Weller Nailed The Part, March 5, 2003
This review is from: First Born [VHS] (VHS Tape)
Peter Weller was superb as the low-life riff-raff boyfriend in this film, from the first hung-over moment he appears on the screen to his nonchalant comment, after the kids later catch him and the mom with cocaine, "Life goes on." Living in apartment complexes during the first half of the 1980s, I saw this same guy again and again, preying temporarily on single women, leeching off them for awhile, leaving their lives in varying degrees of shambles and abruptly moving on. Weller was so good in this movie role, you could almost smell it on him.
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16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Realistic enough to be a quiet classic, August 11, 2001
This review is from: First Born [VHS] (VHS Tape)
I would recommend this movie to Peter Weller and Terri Garr fans alike. Corey Haim gives a good performance as well, but it is far from the flippant teen idol roles he's favored for later. 'Firstborn' is a realistic look into many lives disrupted by divorce and adolescence. While it won't fit everyone's experience of these, it doesn't gloss over the issues. It's about a woman who is searching for emotional healing after her husband announces he is remarrying, two sons who are trying to deal with what they knew as 'family' dissintigrating, and a loner, small time drug dealer. But each character has one thing in common. Each person is trying to fit into life, and find where his or her life fits in with the rest of the world. You have a lonely, hurt divorcee, a boy who is almost a man, who has to be the man in the family suddenly, and a young boy who is confused by his father's abandonement, and his mother's sadness. Then comes the drifter who promises stability and affection to the family. Only problem is, the oldest boy (who feels the urge to protect his family) figures out real fast that the man offering the missing piece to the incomplete family is not what he seems. The mother, desperate for love and companionship is reluctant to see the man for what he is, bringing violence and drug use/selling into the house. Hollywood often portrays drugs as great entertainment, and the traffic of it profitable and empowering. 'Firstborn' shows the other side. It doesn't always make fast money and good friends. The boys also react in a very realistic way. They are at the age when self-examination and rebellion become a part of school, social life, and family. Further disruption and danger amplify the behavior, and is realistically exaggerated by threat, abuse and lies.
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11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Springfield missed the point, January 10, 2001
By A Customer
This review is from: First Born [VHS] (VHS Tape)
The movie shows WHY most kids act that way. In powerless situations all you have is attitude, you can't chose where you live yet and your life is affected by your parents decisions but you have no influence . I think the movie artfully tells the story how the boys' lives gradually become unstable. They stop bringing their friends home because they can't predict what they'll find and soon they don't come home. And that doesn't really matter because mom isn't home or cooking dinner,for example. The house isn't clean and the mom who avoided coffee ,smokes and does all kinds of "stuff". The movie also shows that "limbo" most teens find themselves in, not kids- not adults and depending on the situation what role they'll be called to play. In school they have to sit down and shut up but at home ,in this movie,the older brother is having to be a parent to his brother and sometimes his mother. These are the growing up years not necessarily the golden years.
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