Daddy (1987) starring Dermot Mulroney, Patricia Arquette, John Karlen, Tess Harper, J.J. Cohen, Danny Aiello, Darren Dalton, Stuart Fratkin, Laura Leigh Hughes directed by John Herzfeld Movie Review

Daddy (1987)   3/53/53/53/53/5


Dermot Mulroney in Daddy (1987) (aka: High School and Pregnant)

High School Daddy

I have read a few opinions on "Daddy" which is also known as "High School and Pregnant" and in fairness to those opinions which appear to have come from teenagers forced to watch this in more recent years I agree it does come across as corny. These sorts of movies which deal with the subject of teenage pregnancy have moved on leaps and bounds since this was made back in the late 1980's and to watch this now it does appear like it is treating teenagers as utter morons. But I was a teenager back in the late 1980s and whilst I never got to see this back then I would say it was good for its time.

Bobby (Dermot Mulroney - The Memory Keeper's Daughter) is a typical teenager with sex on his mind and is persuasive enough to convince girlfriend Stacy (Patricia Arquette - A Nightmare on Elm Street 3) in to having sex with him. But two months after they first did it Stacy shocks him with the news that she is pregnant which he didn't think was possible because not only did it happen on their first time but he always withdrew. Despite Bobby as well as Stacy's mum wanting her to have an abortion Stacy insists on having the child and keeping it forcing Bobby to man up and take responsibility for his actions. But they soon discover that being teen parents is no walk in the park from late nights to stressed emotions as well as having to let go of what their plans were before the mistake.

Patricia Arquette in Daddy (1987) (aka: High School and Pregnant)

Let me put this into context "Daddy" is very real for its time when teenagers were not given the same level of sex education as they are now and parents were uncomfortable with having the talk with their children. As such there was an incredible amount of naivety when it came to sex from myths about not getting pregnant on the first time and if you withdraw before climaxing to a blasé attitude when it came to using precautions. It is not just this side which is realistic as it also portrays the stress which comes when two teenagers try to be parents from sleepless nights to the loss of the free life they had before and the cost of being growing ups. As such for when this is made it is an effective educational drama for teenagers with many insightful scenes none more so when Bobby's parents argue because his father, played by John Karlen, never had the talk with him.

But times have changed and so have these educational movies on the subject of teen pregnancy and "Daddy" now is incredibly dated. The ignorance of Bobby when it comes to sex and the way it tries to squeeze in all the educational information now comes across as forced as corny. There are other things which also now appear as corny such as how Bobby handles the pressure of parenthood with huge emotional outbursts.

Aside from what "Daddy" is suppose to be about we also have a fact that this stars a young Dermot Mulroney and Patricia Arquette although both were older than the teenage characters they were playing. Now what you have going in is some typical 80's teenage acting which now seems incredibly dated but more interesting is to see the potential that both these young actors were exhibiting back then. Plus when it comes to Mulroney he plays a character who is a musician, a guitarist and cellist and putting aside some youthfully corny expressions he impresses in those musical moments especially a tender scene where he plays a sweet piece of classical guitar to his baby.

What this all boils down to is that "Daddy" is in fairness a good movie for when it was made but when watched now is extremely dated not just in look but also in the way the story is told and information is presented.


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