Secret Admirer

If you like teen 80s movies, don't pass up Secret Admirer. The story has been done plenty of times. A love letter, of which the author remains conveniently anonymous, unintentionally circulates through many hands, causing loads of misconceptions and people making fools of themselves. 'The Love Letter' (with Ellen Degenerous and Tom Selleck) was the most recent rendition of this story, and I'm sure there was a 50s version of it, too. But what the heck, it's an 80s teen comedy with a well-known teen cast.

C. Thomas Howell is Mike Ryan, a high school guy who is hopelessly in love with the popular, pretty girl, Deborah (Kelly Preston). Only, he can't tell her in person how he feels about her, especially with her tough college boyfriend, Steve (played by Scott McGinnis). Mike confides in Toni (Lori Laughlin), his best friend, instead about how much he loves Deborah.

But, Mike gets the bold idea to write his dream girl a love letter. He doesn't have the courage to give it to Deborah, let alone sign it. So, he gives it to Toni, who can tell that with writing like Mike's, he doesn't stand a chance of making an impression with Deborah. She's a girl with an ego, so it's going to take a lot to impress her. She revises his letter and passes it on. And now Deborah has fallen in love with someone who doesn't exist. Of course, she likes Mike, but she only likes him based on what she has read in the revised letters. In the meantime, Toni wishes Mike would get real and realize that Deborah is no kind of girl for him because she's so insincere and all of that. She's worried about appearances more than anything else. And slowly, Mike starts to realize it, too. In that 'Some Kind of Wonderful' kind of way, he realizes that Toni really likes him, and what the heck, he likes her too.

Meanwhile, there's trouble between Mike's family and Deborah's family as the letters start passing hands of the family members and the parents start suspecting that each other's spouse wants to get involved in an affair just because of this dumb love letter. And they're even willing to have a go because they suspect their own spouses of cheating. It's all a major mistake and one entirely based on lack of trust in their relationships. The consequences are funny nonetheless.

As for the rest of the cast, there's some funny moments with cocky Roger (Casey Seizmasko), who plays Mike's other best friend and poor source of guidance about girls. You can also see a very young Corey Haim in his film debut as Mike's younger punk brother. And, other members of Mike's friends include Courtney Gains ('Can't Buy Me Love') who is in so few scenes and many other familiar faces.

It's good lazy fun even if the story isn't anything new.

High school student Michael Ryan gets a letter from a secret admirer who he believes to be Debbie, a beautiful but shallow girl who only dates college guys. He goes to a fraternity party to find out if she is indeed the one, but that does not work out too well. For one thing, Debbie's boyfriend Steve still wants her even though she is tired of him. So Michael goes to his attractive and intelligent friend Toni, who is also a friend of Debbie's, to find out what to do. Michael starts writing anonymous letters of his own to Debbie (who is not identified), but the letters wind up in the wrong hands, with hilarious results. The letters that make it to Debbie, of course, are not Michael's because Toni doesn't think they are good enough and she makes changes. This is strange because it is clear throughout the entire movie that Toni and Michael belong together, so if Toni wanted Michael, all she would have to do would be to deliver the terrible letters to Debbie, who supposedly wouldn't want Michael after reading them.

There is some, but not a lot of physical comedy in this movie. Some of it results from confusion about who is in love with whom, and jealousy on the part of husbands, wives, boyfriends and girlfriends. There is also a scene where a former girlfriend has found out her boyfriend bragged, and she gets revenge. You wouldn't expect this particular girl to be violent.

I didn't see any great acting performances, though I liked Toni, and Kelly Preston sometimes came across quite well as the self-centered Debbie. Overall, I enjoyed it.

This is just how we loved these sex comedy films in the eighties, this a cut above a lot of others. Being a C Thomas Howell fan, this is one of my favorites of his his, years before he plummeted into doing continuous dreck, as like many other actors. Smitten by a popular mature girl (Preston), he's longing after, when the real answer was right in front of him, all along, he receives an anonymous love letter, which goes astray, ending up in the wrong hands, well many wrong hands, with disastrous results, it's just fun. This is just another eighties film, which has me wishing, why can't we see stuff like this today. I just wish I could just go back in time. This movie is a lot of fun, while being a bit of a drama too. Howell's friends, larger than life characters, one bringing a suitcase with him, we see, while going up to Howell's crib, are a hoot, where school has ended for the Summer season. The finale that has Howell chase down his admirer, I must say was a little breathtaking, as his admirer is heading off on a weird transport venue of education. All in all, SA is a very enjoyable and and likable comedy where Howell stole a lot of girl's hearts at that time. Fred Ward as Preston's trigger happy cop Father is a classic.

Young man (C. Thomas Howell) gets an unsigned love letter on the last day of school. He thinks it is from the most popular girl in school (Kelly Preston) and sets about trying to win her over. At the same time however, the letter is getting passed along and mixed up with other people who mistakingly think it is addressed to them.

One of the best films of the genre is a charming, sweet and romantic teen comedy that features an adorable score, a great cast that is used perfectly (especially Lori Loughlin as Howell's best friend and Fred Ward as Preston's dad) and a good ending. Plenty of laughs and suspense along the way also!

Rated R; Sexual Situations, Nudity, Mild Violence and Profanity.

I saw this first when it came out,I was about ten. I watched it again last night. I loved it then and I love it now. The dialogue acting and plot are really good. The characters are all great and fun as well. I noticed the difference between this movie and "teen comedies" made now and it goes like this. Secret Admirer contained, more subtle thoughtful character based humour, characters with a little more chaste morality (even Kelly's jerk jock boyfriend Steve didn't want to cheat), no sluts, plenty of foul language, diverse scene locations, and more intelligent dialogue and plot twists. I liked the characters a lot and the music by Jan Hammer was fantastic and memorable, which makes sense, since Jan Hammer is a bad S.O.B (just listen to Mahavishnu Orchestra and you will know that). I remember that when I was ten I thought that Kelly preston had the greatest breast, and I was right! I still found the movie just as funny as I did then and found the innocence of the characters endearing, in fact I found every scene memorable. Thomas Howell played the party guy in love to a T. Seeing Corey Haim as his little brother made me sad when I think what happened to the poor guy, he was great, very charismatic! You would have thought he had a great future. Bastard drugs! Anyway the humor is constant even at the end when it seems to be getting serious you get a trippy break when Mike asks for directions.

A joy of a film. 10/10.