Matialth Good concept, poorly executed.

ThedevilChoose When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

Jerrie It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

Billy Ollie Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

petersdraggon This movie was entertaining although a little weird. It was interesting to see Kevin Bacon & Ms. Tomei dressed in 70's garb. They played the part of a married couple totally engrossed in each other and alomist unaware they had a daughter, played by a young Kyra. There were flash-backs to when Kyra was the young daughter who was for the most part ignored by her parents, then flash-forwarding to when she was an adult. Kyra played the part of a woman obsessed with getting pregnant and becoming a mother. She used men as sperm donors only. Not much skin shown, however during the first half of the movie Kyra was running around in her panties with her headlights on for the most part. She really is a well put-together woman. For that it was almost worth the time; otherwise it was a story about a far-fetched mother's obsession with her son. The boy playing her son did a good job and was a cute child actor. Wasn't a total waste of time but not a blockbuster by any means.

aprovost-2 I am sure that Loverboy was a well-meaning film, but it seemed like a vanity production in which Mr. Bacon asked all his friends to appear in it for nothing. While Kyra is a wonderful actress and never looked better, who cared what she wanted or even understood it? This script was so maudlin and confusing that I totally lost interest after 40 minutes and fast-forwarded to the last scene, which seemed to have nothing to do with anything I had seen, suggesting they didn't even get to the story until sometime long after I had given up. Mr. Bacon is a great actor but if he's going to attempt directing he should find a better script.

nycritic 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.

Ubuman I read this book and saw the film at the Hamptons International Film Festival (10/2005). This is a complex and nuanced story about a single mother's obsessive love for her only child. The story explores the psychology of this obsession and the sometimes sublime, sometimes tragic effects it has on the lives of both mother and son. It is a wonderful adaptation of a novel by Victoria Redel (Greywolf 2001, Harcourt 2002 in paperback) that I imagine would present some challenges given its non-linear time frame and the careful parsing of its secret twists and turns. The acting is superb and the characters portrayed are funny, endearing, and multifaceted. Marissa Tomei and Kevin Bacon are hilarious as the 70's era, sexed up, deliriously in love and sadly neglectful parents. Kyra Sedgwick is brilliant as she confidently captures the complex subtleties of her character, making it easy for the audience to empathize with what would otherwise be, and at times is a difficult and disturbing obsessiveness. Other performances by Sandra Bullock as the sultry and insightful neighbor, Oliver Platt as the nervous and nerdy school administrator, and Matt Dillon as the love interest you can't help but root for, all contribute to what is a very entertaining and meaningful film.