Risky Business

Risky Business; Comedy, USA, 1983; D: Paul Brickman, S: Tom Cruise, Rebecca De Mornay, Joe Pantoliano, Curtis Amrstrong

Joel (17) is constantly dreaming that a naked girl is taking a shower in his bathroom. When he parents leave for a vacation, he finally has the whole house at his disposal. Spontaneously, he orders a prostitute, Lana, with whom he has intercourse, but when she demands 300 $, he doesn't have the money to pay. Still, when he saves her from the pimp and lets her live at his place, she falls in love with him. Unfortunately, Joel sinks dad's car in a lake and thus needs money to repair it. With friends and Lana, he organizes a brothel in the house and persuades a man to enlist him to Princeton. Lana's pimp steals his furniture so Joel pays him for it before the parents return.

Inappropriate teenage comedy for the dumb was a surprising box office hit and helped Tom Cruise's career considerably, even thought the director almost chose someone else for the leading role. The legendary, often copied and imitated scene when Cruise slides on the floor in his underwear after his parents left the house is a small classic that's almost instantly recognizable, but the rest of the story is boring and unfunny. Moreover, Cruise is here actually playing a character who is more a loser and a naive person, since his friends mock him (they bring a transvestite for his "date") while the misadventures are more embarrassing than they are truly comical. Occasional nudity is just here to keep the viewer awake because, disregarding good performances by Cruise and Rebecca De Mornay, the whole film wasted a potentially great story that doesn't offer inspiration neither in dialogues nor the thin writing.

Grade:+