Movie Reviews

Going All the Way

16 Jun 1998

Were it not for the more serious moments, vague spiritual allusions and occasional flashes of wit, Going All the Way would be little more than a stylised version of the teenage sex comedies of the eighties. Our heroes, on a constant pursuit of sex, tend to meet women who are both alarmingly sexy and happy to oblige.

It actually has a literary basis. Dan Wakefield's novel was a best-seller in 1970, about a young man's quest for independence during the dangerously conservative 1950s. It might have seemed like an inspiring coming-of-age story 28 years ago, but now, through Wakefield's own script, the quest looks slightly different: an empty and pointless tale about the pursuit of... well, sex. Realistic? Maybe. Mundane? Certainly.

In 1954, the shy and confused Sonny Burns (Jeremy Davies) returns home from military service to his doting mother Alma (Jill Clayburgh) and his loyal high-school girlfriend Buddy (Amy Locane), who for all her apple-pie sweetness, will strip down and make love to him without blinking.

At the same time, Sonny has befriended the former school jock. Gunner Casselman (Ben Affleck) was posted to Japan, where he was attracted to Zen philosophy. He is now a changed man, and sees Sonny as "an inner-directed guy". The truth is, Sonny would rather be as shallow as Gunner. He just isn't lucky enough.

Sonny and Gunner have semi-profound conversations, but usually their thoughts are elsewhere. When one of them attempts suicide, it is due to a sexual failure. The solution? They decide to cheer up at a brothel. Very deep.

The film is advertised as starring "Oscar-winner Ben Affleck". Affleck's Oscar was for a screenplay, and his one-note performance does him little credit. Davies, apart from a few good comic scenes, brings no life to his own character, who remains painfully soft-spoken. Clayburgh shines, however, as a God-fearing, Commie-hating, milk-and-cookies parody of a 1950s American mother.

Director Mark Pellington, aided by Therese DePrez's award-winning production design, does manage to convincingly evoke the period. Sadly, it is the best quality of a film which, with better focus, could have been either a good drama or a passable comedy.