Very Cool!!!

It is a performances centric movie

Good story, Not enough for a whole film

Blistering performances.

We begin in the present day with sexy mother Kyra Sedgwick (as Emily Stoll) and cute 6-year-old son Dominic Scott Kay (as "Loverboy" Paul) in a car. She tells him how she wanted to have a baby ("Loverboy") desperately. Her trying to get pregnant takes up the first flashback sequence. When artificial insemination doesn't work out, Ms. Sedgwick decides it's best to receive "multiple ejaculations from different sources," or, "many men equals no father." The simulated library encounter doesn't even look close enough to be making the necessary contact, but eventually Sedgwick is successfully a mother...Next flashback series goes farther back in time, to introduce Sedgwick as a little girl with self-absorbed parents Kevin Bacon (as Mark) and Marisa Tomei (as Sybil). This seems to be saying something about Sedgwick's character, and may be predicting problems for her son. However, none of it is really very clear. Not sure what to make of the story, although Sedgwick and Mr. Bacon (her husband, also the director) do okay. A look at the credits shows most of the Bacon family was involved with the making of "Loverboy". The topic is unsavory, but ripe with dramatic possibilities; herein, they are not fully realized.***** Loverboy (1/24/05) Kevin Bacon ~ Kyra Sedgwick, Dominic Scott Kay, Matt Dillon, Marisa Tomei

If not for his lead role in "Footloose", Kevin Bacon might be most well-known for the actor linking game that bares his name. Even though he's headed up a cast on a number of occasions, he remains one of the most recognizable and chameleon-like character actors of his generation.His strengths for conveying characters through great subtlety and resistance have translated well behind the camera as well. He directs his real life wife, Kyra Sedgwick, in "Loverboy". In it she plays a complicated, but surprisingly elusive woman whose childhood neglect has left her hellbent on creating a different life for her own child. Unfortunately her efforts to conceive and parent are fraught with overzealousness and obsessive behavior. The internal struggle and harrowing sadness is well presented through her impressive, nuanced performance as well as Bacon's visual canvas that in many ways recreates the films of the early-seventies. This is a gentle, yet moody film that is well-conceived and emotionally daring.

LOVERBOY is a deceptive feature. It starts quite cheerfully, introducing us to the free spirit that Emily is as she moves from man to man, trying to have a son, and failing each time. The movie seems to be trying to present Emily as this ultimate feminist -- a woman who has the means to live independent from a man's company, who is unabashedly sexual and maybe a little dangerous. She's even tried artificial insemination -- it's one of the movie's first scenes as a matter of fact -- to no avail. Even her voice-over seems rather upbeat... until she begins to display hints of a less balanced personality. The fact the is aggressively trying to become a mother -- the seed of many fathers is equal to having no actual face, no actual gene to trace her son back to, so she philosophizes -- is but the seed of a greater evil, one that involves the fruit of her loins.The appearance of a kind man (Campbell Scott in a brief scene) is the catalyst for her motherhood to take effect. Of course, predictably, she takes the money and runs as far as she can, purchasing a house in cash, and letting loose her inner demons where she begins to call her son "Loverboy" (hence, the movie's title). It's a subtle but shocking left turn that discloses the real pathos that was always there. Emily wants no man in her life because she is literally saving herself for the one man who will come from within her: it's a symbolic way of securing the ties between two people, and an extreme one. Her boy is tied to her through the placental cord from which she has fed him, now he will be hers in every possible way. What she ignores is that "Loverboy" grows increasingly independent from her. Every tug of her possessiveness garners an equally reactive tug of assertiveness from Paul who almost comes to hate her. The appearance of external elements -- a father figure under the form of Matt Dillon, a school system that is battling her monstrous motherhood, and her own hurt child who was barbarously neglected by her disco-dancing parents (Kevin Bacon and Marisa Tomei) and abandoned by a neighbor who acted as a mother figure (Sandra Bullock) -- drive Emily to the edge of sanity.LOVERBOY is an actress' dream movie: one that can allow her to display her range in a character that has many levels of femininity, some initially rather thrilling, others quite frightening. Emily is a marked woman whose wounds have not healed with time, and Kyra Sedgwick, an actress who has had moderate success, finds a powerful role here. She is in nearly every shot, and where another less subtle actress might have overdone the moment Emily's damaged psyche surfaces, Sedgwick maintains a certain beauty, a certain elegance even when her resolution is horrific. Kevin Bacon has made a haunting movie, one that has depth, a strong visual sense, and doesn't shy away from its dark heart for the sake of satisfying a wider audience.

Kyra Sedgwick was amazingly creepy, which is a shame because the movie otherwise should have been thought out better. While I had no problem with the weird flashbacks into her life as a child, I did not understand the relevance of the Sandra Bullock character, who was clearly a sexual presence. If they were trying to show Kyra's character had no stable parental figures, then they should've made Sandra Bullock a warm, mommy type who disappeared or died or whatever, or they should've showed more of Sandra's character teaching Kyra's character to be sexual and discard men. What they depicted instead was a one-sided crush, which to me, is a whole nother movie.That being said, I loved watching Kyra's character lose her baby to school. I think that is a transition that could potentially cause a woman to lose her mind, if she is used to having constant interaction with her kid, which you have in the first few years-- and both Kyra and the child actor and the supporting actors nailed this portion of the film. I wish they made the movie just about this and then skipped back and maybe offered a little enlightenment onto why she has no men in her life-- a woman who loses her mind in the process and becomes homicidal. On that note, the ending seemed clearly tagged on.