A Pyromaniac's Love Story

I caught the film as a lark while looking for movies under 100 minutes. This is a nice little contemporary fairy tale about love. There is an artificial quality to the performances which I think is intentional, but that's offset humor in the script and an artful score. If you liked "Moonstruck" check this out.

While I had never even heard about this 1995 movie titled "A Pyromaniac's Love Story", of course I opted to watch it, as I stumbled upon it by random chance here in 2025. And seeing the rather impressive cast ensemble, I figured that chances would be high of this being a good movie.

Writer Morgan Ward put together a fair enough script and storyline. It was a watchable movie, but I didn't find the script or narrative to be particularly outstanding or memorable.

The acting performances in the movie are good. And there are so many familiar faces on the cast list, with the likes of John Leguizamo, William Baldwin, Erika Eleniak, Joan Plowright, Michael Lerner, Armin Mueller-Stahl, Mike Starr and Sadie Frost.

"A Pyromaniac's Love Story" is a watchable movie, sure, but hardly a movie that warrants more than just a single viewing.

My rating of director Joshua Brand's 1995 movie lands on a five out of ten stars.

This was an attempt toward a romantic comedy, and one which did not work. Although the film was cast in an interesting manner, the dismal script betrayed the best efforts of all. The director's fey mannerisms may have succeeded if he had adopted a point of view. It was embarrassing to watch William Baldwin and, in particular, Armin Muller-Stahl.

1995 NY rom-com "A Pyromaniac's Love Story" over-laps three romances via a bakery's arson. Owners Armin Mueller-Stahl & Joan Plowright have money woes, so he wants the insurance. Worker John Leguizamo digs neighbour Sadie Frost (daughter of Michael Lerner) who wants to travel the world. And whacko William Baldwin digs posh Erica Eleniak who seems to dig Leguizamo (but does she?)... and WHO torched the gaff? Some performances are weak (especially Frost, Baldwin & Eleniak), the first of Morgan Ward's only two screenplays is jaunty but too light, and though Joshua Brand directed his only full movie with warmth it still doesn't save it from being a tad forgettable.

This was one of my favorite 90's flicks. It was right there with Singles. It was quirky and weird, yet also had the rom com feel to it. I loved Billy Baldwin back then in this because he just looked like he had bed head through the whole movie, and if you were young in the 90's, that was the "hot guy" look. I've always been a fan of John Luguizamo, so his starring in this just added to my love of the film. It's funny how it has low IMDB ratings by todays standards, because my friend group all loved this movie because it had that same kind of odd/weird vibe that a lot of the cool 90's films had.