Great visuals, story delivers no surprises

Good concept, poorly executed.

I really wanted to like this movie. I feel terribly cynical trashing it, and that's why I'm giving it a middling 5. Actually, I'm giving it a 5 because there were some superb performances.

Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

"Nobody's Fool" (1984), not to be confused with the later film starring Paul Newman, is an unconventional comedy with a few serious overtones. Rosanna Arquette is perfectly cast by director Evelyn Purcell in the lead role of Cassie. Living in a small Southwestern Arizona town, Cassie is lonely and depressed and bordering on madness after the break-up of her relationship with her longtime boyfriend (a very conceited Jim Youngs). She tries several comical attempts at suicide but they all come to naught. Her distracted mother (Louise Fletcher) doesn't seem to have a clue to her predicament. To make matters more complicated, Cassie was pregnant at the time of her break-up. She has the baby but puts it up for adoption. Now stuck in a dead-end job with a sympathetic co-worker (Mare Winningham), Cassie's life seems destined for the junk heap---until a Summer Stock company comes to town. She soon falls for the main technician for the troupe, Riley (Eric Roberts), but it takes her a while to admit the truth to herself. Her ex-boyfriend is beginning to show up at unexpected moments, and Cassie's heartstrings begin to pull in two different directions. Complicating the story further is that Riley doesn't seem any more stable than Cassie is. He's carrying a lot of serious baggage himself. In the meantime, Cassie decides to take on some acting classes and shines on stage in the film's penultimate moment when she performs one of Juliet's soliloquies from Shakespeare's famous play. At that point, Cassie realizes that she's come full-cycle in her formerly messed-up existence. It doesn't take her long to decide to follow Riley to Los Angeles and begin a new life. To quote the Bard, "after suffering the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune," Cassie's story has a mostly happy ending. "Nobody's Fool" was tailor-made for the talents of star Rosanna Arquette. Alas, her career had few high points after this picture. That's probably because this film was not anything close to a box-office success. That's too bad because all the performances were excellent and the story-line had a definite 1980s feel to it. Molly Ringwald may have been the teen queen of that era, but Ms. Arquette certainly cornered the market for the twenty-somethings back then. She is at least well-remembered for that and for the band Toto's song in her honor.

This is one of the better movies made in my hometown of Prescott, Arizona. It was made my senior year of high school and one of my class mates had a part as an extra in it. Back in the eighties there were not many hispanics or blacks in Prescott so the lack of people of color was accurate for the time, it was very white for a long time. Also, there really were quite a few people who wore western style clothing. I am not a romantic comedy fan so I watched this movie only because it was made in my town. I actually enjoyed it even though there was no body count, I prefer horror movies. I was surprised how good this was after seeing the bad movies made locally at the time.

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.