Risky Business - where business is good

I essentially knew nothing about this movie, having never seen it growing up. I knew that Tom Cruise did the dance in his underwear, but that was it. So imagine my surprise when he turns pimp!

In Risky Business, a very young Tom Cruise is left home alone while his parents visit a sick aunt. He's a straight arrow, focusing on school, the SATs, and getting into Princeton. His buddies, however, convince him to contact a call girl, which he does with the naivety of a 17 year old. After a night of doing what they do, Tom has to leave her to cash in a bond ("We hope your life is full of joy and happiness. Love Grandpa and Grandma.") to pay the $300. He returns to find that she's stolen a very valuable and very dear to Mom crystal egg. He tracks her down and rescues her from an abusive pimp, and she stays another night in the house. Tom once again leaves her, this time to attend school, and comes home to find a friend of hers earned some money from one of his friends. Tom gets a cut because it's his house, and, after doing some drugs (his first time), they go out for a night of fun which ends when Tom drives his dad's Porsche into Lake Michigan.

Having previously declined a business offer from his young hooker friend but now desperate for money to pay for the damages, Tom agrees to hose a one night soiree to hook up his lonely friends and classmates with Lana's friends and associates. They make a killing, Tom rakes in $8,000 in one night and even takes care of the interviewer from Princeton, who of course comes that night and is somewhat ... surprised. Lana takes Tom out on the town because she wants to do it on a train (yes this happened) and the ride all night until they are alone and do just that. Tom returns home to find an empty house. Literally empty, as Lana's pimp has stolen everything as punishment for taking his business. He returns with a UHaul truck and sells back all of the furniture, draining all of poor Tom's hard earned money. His parents return that afternoon none the wiser (minus a tiny scratch on the egg), and the Princeton interviewer calls his dad and boasts what a great student he'll make.

 
I have to admit I enjoyed this one, and not just because it was fun to watch a Tom Cruise movie before he went totally crazy. The performances are very reserved which allows for the story to grab you to the point where, sure, I can believe this 17 year old is a pimp. There are also quite a few funny scenes, including Tom telling the school nurse why he missed school and should have the absences excused. "To be honest, I met a call girl," he begins as she's filling out the unexcused absence form. "You're still writing! I just need a little compassion!" There's a great sight gag after he picks up the repaired Porsche and drives about 20 MPH with his blinking lights, so terrified he's going to do anything else to the car. Then while his friends are putting the furniture back in the house, one of his friends makes the point that the figures on the bookshelf should be arranged by century. "You don't want to mix cultures, either."

It's another of those crazy coming-of-age stories that is wild but just believable enough to be fun.

In one of the final scenes, Tom meets with Lana for brunch and asks if that night on the train - which meant so much to him - was all part of a trick to get him out of the house. She takes a long pause and says that no, it wasn't just to occupy him. "You don't believe me, do you?" I've given it some thought, and I'm not sure whether we are supposed to or not. The two of them have a great chemistry so that when she's begging him to leave with her, it could really be that the train ride was all her idea. The movie ends with their roles reversed, repeating dialog from their first night together only Lana is playing the part of the naive, inexperienced girl. So maybe it was all an act.

Or maybe it really doesn't matter.

Risky Business: 5 of Patrick Swayze's 6 abs.

Extra abs

- Apparently sales of the Ray Bans Tom wears in this movie shot up 2,000% following the movie's release.

- The song playing on the train is Phil Collins'"In the Air Tonight."

- Bronson Pinchot plays one of the high school friends. He'd of course go on to star in Perfect Strangers, so it's hard to take anything he says seriously.

- The pimp is played with swarmy delight by Joe Pantoliano. Sadly, he was already going bold some 15 years before selling his soul in The Matrix.