Mad Love

Chris O'Donnell heats up the screen and Drew Barrymore is at her sensual best in this motion picture about two teens who take an adventure together against parental wishes. I admit the first time I saw this movie last summer I didn't like it at all. But when I gave it a second try, I actually found it was really good. Because the movie isn't packed with laughs or memorable quotes, I had missed a lot of what made the movie such a good one in it's subtle, yet charming way (the first time I saw it). When I watched it a second time, however, I payed a lot more attention to the movie itself and saw that it did have delight, great acting talent and other positive notes. As well as this, the directing was fine and there were some really good shots through the characters' road trip in the movie. This is one interesting picture. A must-see! Rating: Three out of Five stars.

The high-school student Matt Leland (Chris O'Donnell) lives with his twin brother and sister and his father in a house by the lake. When the teenager Casey Roberts (Drew Barrymore) moves to the house on the other side of the lake, Matt snoops into her room with his telescope. They meet each other and soon they fall in love with each other. One day, Matt is taking a test at school and Casey activates the fire alarm to stop the test. She is suspended and her father decides to check her into a psychiatric institution. However Matt breaks her out of the hospital. They travel in Matt's car and have lots of fun until the day Matt discovers that Casey has bipolar disorder with periods of depression and periods of elevated mood. When she tries to commit suicide, Matt realizes that she needs specialized help.

"Mad Love" is a road movie with a tale of madness and sort of teen version of "The Girl from Trieste". Matt Leland is a good student and son that changes his behavior when he falls in love with the maniac depressive Casey that has arrived from Chicago. When she is interned in an institution, he believes that her family is unfair with the girl. But when he realizes that her mental illness is serious and dangerous, he contacts her family and they find the solution for her treatment. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Amor Louco" ("Mad Love")

Shirtless in Seattle, handsome blue-eyed Chris O'Donnell (as Matt Leland) has his telescope trained on jiggling blonde Drew Barrymore (as Casey Roberts). Later, the sexy high school seniors go to a concert by themselves, which is strange, and do some head-banging. They skip school and have fun driving her yellow Volkswagen around town. These two are attractive, affluent and in love. However, something seems wrong. To be with Mr. O'Donnell during a test, Ms. Barrymore pulls the school fire alarm. "What are you, nuts?" asks O'Donnell. "Yeah," she replies. This turns out to be true...

Director Antonia Bird gets all her spark plugs in line for a fine sequence involving traveling salesman Liev Schreiber...

Barrymore seems emotionally disturbed, with a confidential diagnosis. After a suicide attempt, she is committed. O'Donnell helps her bust out of the mental hospital and they go on a joyride to Mexico. Barrymore's road "games" are so obviously over the top, it's a stretch to believe O'Donnell doesn't catch on faster. Possibly, it would have worked better if writer Paula Milne gave him some substance abuse; the character seems too level-headed. Barrymore and O'Donnell look great together, but are unconvincing as an amateur "Bonnie and Clyde". Besides, it looks like car theft is legal in the southwest.

***** Mad Love (5/26/95) Antonia Bird ~ Chris O'Donnell, Drew Barrymore, Kevin Dunn, Liev Schreiber

It seems like the title of this movie was chosen at the last minute by the guy in the business suit. "So it's about a coupla teenagers, let's say they're 'in love', and one of them has mental problems, let's call her crazy..." The film itself though, I think, resists cliches, especially the fact that the four letter word (love) was avoided, which has a tendency to suck dry any useful plot content that might be found in a movie, opting for some different ways of illustrating their relationship. The two main characters are well portrayed, and believable. I think Barrymore and O'Donnell hold together something that may not have great elements like soundtrack, plot originality etc, because despite the fact that Drew's eyebrows really annoyed me, they both did a good job.

This wasn't necessarily a bad movie, but it wasn't that good either. It desperately tried to cash in on the teen audience, with a "hip" cast and soundtrack, but as a teenager I couldn't really relate. Chris O'Donnell's performance was pretty bland, but Drew spiced it up a bit. It started to get better towards the end when we finally got to see the extent of Drew's depression, but the first 3/4 of the movie was such a paint by numbers approach to a romance that I'm not sure that it was worth the wait. Leaves little to criticize, but even less to praise.