Nobody's Fool (1986)

Stylish but barely mediocre overall

Better Late Then Never

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

What I liked about this movie, besides the intriguing and beautiful Rosanna Arquette, is the way the offbeat characters relate to each other in a realistic, non predictable way that people in real life do. Roger Ebert's complaint of lack of consistency is really asking for more of the same formulaic, predictable stuff we get 95% of the time in movies. Two people who are unsure of themselves will indeed vacillate in the manner these two lovers do. This, among other things, is what sets this "love story" apart from conventional Hollywood fare. Nobody's Fool is a well acted and finely crafted movie and deserved a far better reception from the critics than it got. The number of responses on this site for a 1986 film is testimony enough.

For Arizona, you sure got a lot of white (northern) people walking around this desert community. The cowboy hats add to the image that it is a south western community, but then again, the movie lacks any soul of the setting. Still, this is a great, forgotten 80's romantic comedy. Both Roberts and Arquette are a delight to watch. Both are very young and are in the prime of their careers. The movie has its moments of comedy and its moments of seriousness. Overall, the movie deals with the issue of growing up, falling in and out of love, and trying to find the one that is right for you. The movie tries to hit on suicide and depression but it fails. It takes a back seat to what the audience wants to see, comedy. Overall, the story ends happy and cheerful.

Nobody's Fool surprisingly had some very funny moments, which made this a slightly different 80's romantic comedy about small town eccentrics which has the usual formula of strange guy meeting confused girl and falling in love (though their affection is very ambiguous) and then breaking up and then falling in love again. Rosanna Arquette plays Cassie, a young woman who's small town life is constricting, although she's confused about how she really feels about her life there. She lives with her spacey mom (Louise Fletcher) and obnoxious brother, works a thankless job as a bartender with her friend who seems to be her only source of emotional support (Mare Winningham), and she still can't get over a jerk named Billy (hands down, the scene where she's at the resturaunt talking to Billy in that balloon outfit really got me howling). So, along comes Riley (Eric Roberts) a quiet guy with a dangerous, but reformed past who passes through town as a member of the theater crew. The arrival of the theater group inspires Cassie to do something different. She joins a thespian class and actually turns out to be pretty good (the scene where she and the other members of her class perform and the audience heckles them silly is one of the funniest scenes in the movie). Riley really likes Cassie and realizes that her potential outgrows her little town and tries to convince her of that. Riley's there to get Cassie, confused enough as she is about what she should do, to figure out just what it is she wants and what it is she plans on doing with the rest of her life. It is a sweet romantic comedy that has some incredibly funny moments, and you can see how good Roseanna Arquette is for comedy like this as sort of a shy, confused type of young woman who tries to get people to notice her, even though the people around her haven't got a clue about much of anything. This helps transcend beyond the template story. It's worth watching, especially if you enjoy Rosanna Arquette. I think this is one of her best early performances.

I thought this was a quite funny and sympathethic movie.It had a good leading cast,with Eric Roberts and Rosanna Arquette giving solid performances.It had humour too.I laughed several times while watching it.And all the jokes were good. What more can you ask?I am giving this a nice 8.