Nobody's Fool Movie Review

Love hurts, and Cassie (Rosanna Arquette) is finding out just how much it hurts as Nobody's Fool begins. She hates her job as a waitress in a bar (except for her friend Pat, nicely played by Mare Winningham), she hates being dumped by her boyfriend Billy (Jim Youngs) when she told him she was pregnant, she hates that she had to give the baby up for adoption, and she hates the fact that she's tried so many times to kill herself without success. She's making yet another unsuccessful suicide bid in the opening sequence, and it's clear from her energy, humor, and vitality that she doesn't really want to die. Then an engaging technician named Riley (Eric Roberts) comes to town with a touring theatrical troupe. Cassie starts to perk up a bit, but the part of her that feels good feeling bad still casts longing glances in Billy's direction. Evelyn Purcell does a fine job showing how disconnected a girl like Cassie can feel in a small town like Buckeye. Ironically, Nobody's Fool was released on the same day as ex-husband Jonathan Demme's Something Wild. It's a lovely, much underappreciated film, and Rosanna Arquette and Eric Roberts are delightful as Cassie and Riley.

1986 (PG-13) 107m/C Rosanna Arquette, Eric Roberts, Mare Winningham, Louise Fletcher, Jim Youngs, Gwen Welles, Stephen Tobolowsky, Charlie Barnett, Lewis Arquette; D: Evelyn Purcell; W: Beth Henley; C: Misha Susov; M: James Newton Howard. VHS, LV, Closed Caption