Reckless

Director: James Foley James Foley

Overview

Reckless is the word for rebellious teenaged Johnny Rourke (Aidan Quinn). With a drunken dad and a police-blotter rap sheet as long as his arm, Quinn pursues an "impossible" romance with Tracey Prescott (Daryl Hannah), a girl from a wealthy, highly respected family. Tracey is thrilled at the prospect of kicking over the traces with Johnny, and soon proves to be as big a hellraiser as he is....if not more so. Reckless was written by Chris Columbus, just before he hit pay dirt with Gremlins and The Goonies.

Product Details

Release Date:	08/04/2009
UPC:	0883316195451
Original Release:	1984
Rating:	R
Source:	Warner Archives
Presentation:	[Wide Screen]
Sound:	[Dolby Digital Mono]
Language:	English
Time:	1:30:00
Sales rank:	23,752

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Aidan Quinn	Johnny Rourke
Daryl Hannah	Tracey Prescott
Kenneth McMillan	John Rourke Sr
Cliff De Young	Phil Barton
Lois Smith	Mrs. Prescott
Adam Baldwin	Randy Daniels
Dan Hedaya	Peter Daniels
Billy Jacoby	David Prescott
Toni Kalem	Donna
Jennifer Grey	Cathy Bennario
Haviland Morris	Mary Pat Sykes
Pamela Springsteen	Karen Sybern
Susan Kingsley	Eileen
Adam LeFevre	Officer Haskell
Ellen Mirojnick	Physics Teacher
Robert F. Colesberry	Marine Recruiter
Charles R. Cronin	Mr. Johnson
Tom Timcho	Gus Ulensky
Jon Erwin	Scott Metcalf
Janet LaRue	Career Day Student
Teri Brown	Pinky,Pinky
Joseph Tenaglio	Career Day Student
Judy Sullivan	Student Announcer
Bernard Orbovich	Man in Locker Room
Thaddeus Grondalski	Priest
Billy Jayne	David Prescott
Meg Foster	Actor
Thomas Newman	Composer

Technical Credits

Chris Columbus

Carol Baum	Executive Producer
James Foley	Director
Scott Rudin	Producer
Edgar J. Scherick	Producer
Chris Columbus	Screenwriter
Margery Simkin	Casting

Editorial Reviews

Reckless is not consistently successful but it is consistently interesting. The story feels like the grittier, more melodramatic flipside to the John Hughes films of the same early-1980's era. It is no less of a fantasy than those films due to its reliance on familiar archetypes (the rebel without a cause, the good girl who wants to break out of her shell, etc.) but the Chris Columbus script has fun toying with those archetypes and trying to give them a modern dramatic edge. For the first half of the film, it works: the young lovers are believably awkward when trying to express their feelings or grasp towards adult life and the film has a refreshing frankness about sex and the complexities of teen mating rituals. However, the second half of the story loses focus and succumbs to the clichés it was once playing with (including a rather hokey ending). That said, Reckless remains watchable for teen-drama fans thanks to its style and performances. The sleek cinematography by Michael Ballhaus creates an arresting, stylized look that draws the viewer in because it is atypical for this kind of drama, creating a mood that is nicely supported by the soundtrack's mix of early 1980's radio fare and new wave-style soundtrack cues. James Foley's direction offsets this stylization with a sometimes feverish emotional intensity: highlights include a scene where the camera spins around the film's central couple as they cut loose at a school dance and a wish-fulfillment sequence where they run loose in the school late at night. Foley also gets strong performances from his leads: Aidan Quinn brings the right mixture of attitude and uncertainty to his rebellious hero role and Daryl Hannah's performance brings a winning quirkiness to her "good girl" role. The end result is flawed but intriguing: Reckless sometimes stumbles but its singular approach lingers in the memory.

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