While this is presented somewhat realistically, that doesn't make what's going on right. Lame School teacher Dennis Hopper is busy enough taking care of diamond Julie Harris and leading regular lady friend Amy Irving to confusion over his lack of commitment, so when does he have time to fall prey to the Lolita antics of new students Amy Locane? She's using his barn to store her horse, and one day, she bares her breasts to him and they end up making about. It's his suggestion, in the most innocent of ways, but obviously she was the one who set her sights on going down that path in the first place. She's just a bored, impulsive teenager (who looks like she's in her mid-20's), not really using her brain and also not really caring who gets hurt in her lust for excitement. Local doctor and best pal Hal Holbrook walks in on them one day, and Hopper wakes up to the idiocy of his choices as well as to the threat Locane poses to his life.
You got a glimpse of Hopper in his altogether, and he's baring his soul more than he's burying his body. Hopper isn't the problem with this Dylan. This isn't just about an older actor dealing with the idea that he's still a stud even in his forties (although Hopper was in his early sixties at the time), but about a man who has somehow let life slide by him, grasping at happiness but not in the right way. I wasn't repulsed by the idea of Hopper with a younger girl, but just bored with the whole thing. The performances are good (especially Hopper and Holbrook), and the film is appropriately moody. But the sad truth about it, like the affair between the older man and younger woman, is that the story just ain't all that interesting.
You got a glimpse of Hopper in his altogether, and he's baring his soul more than he's burying his body. Hopper isn't the problem with this Dylan. This isn't just about an older actor dealing with the idea that he's still a stud even in his forties (although Hopper was in his early sixties at the time), but about a man who has somehow let life slide by him, grasping at happiness but not in the right way. I wasn't repulsed by the idea of Hopper with a younger girl, but just bored with the whole thing. The performances are good (especially Hopper and Holbrook), and the film is appropriately moody. But the sad truth about it, like the affair between the older man and younger woman, is that the story just ain't all that interesting.