I WAS IMPRESSED WHEN HE TOLD me he was going to be a nuclear engineer. It was not a career choice I had ever heard of previously from anyone. When I asked him if he had ever seen a nuclear reactor, he told me yes then proceeded to show me a photo of one. In the center of the photo was a thick-walled square pool filled with a liquid that glowed in a vibrant blue color. He explained the reactor was down at the bottom of this pool. Me being a sci-fi fan, someone could have said the photo was the inside of an alien spaceship and I would have believed them. Though I was a freshman, and he was a grad student, we wound up becoming friends. His room was across the hall from mine, so there was no effort to get together for a meal or a school event. We tried to meet once a week at the student union building, where we could play ping pong. Since he grew up in a city two hours away from the university, at some point I asked if any of his friends were enrolled at the school. The way he said no struck me as odd. If he was attending an out of state school I would have understood; however, with this being a state school I found it strange that no one else from his previous schooling institutions was not going for a master’s degree at this university.      TOWARDS THE END OF THE SCHOOL year, he asked me if I wanted to join him for a weekend trip back to his folks’ house. Since I had little homework, I agreed to go. His parents were quite friendly and curious about me, based on the questions they asked me. Nothing intrusive, just interested in my family and friends. I did get a sense they were overjoyed that their son brought a friend home to visit. From the couple of days, we were there, I got a better understanding of my friend; he was pretty much a loner for most of his childhood. This was confirmed when we were leaving to go back to school. His parents took me aside while their son was packing, to tell me how thrilled they are that I befriended their son. They explained how he kept to himself most of his childhood and did not have many friends; partially because there were few kids his age in the neighborhood. I did not know what to say, so I just told them we have each other’s back navigating the college campus and its student body. They seemed to be quite grateful. He was simply a new friend; it was nothing like the parents in this romantic comedy were trying to do.      DESPARATE TO KEEP HER HOUSE, A local resident answers an unusual want ad in the local paper that promised a big payout. All it required was for her to become their son’s girlfriend—not too strange!?!? With Jennifer Lawrence (The Hunger Games franchise, Red Sparrow) as Maddie Barker, Andrew Barth Feldman (A Tourist’s Guide to Love, Foul Play-TV) as Percy Becker, Laura Benanti (tick, tick…BOOM!, Gossip Girl-TV) as Allison Becker, Matthew Broderick (The Producers, Love is Blind) as Laird Becker and Natalie Morales (Battle of the Sexes, Parks and Recreation-TV) as Sara; this film was designed for Jenifer to show off her comedic capabilities. She did a great job in this raunchy story. There were some fun scenes and predicaments throughout the script. I thought the acting was good as well as some of the dialog. Originally, I thought the idea behind the story was too far-fetched; but maybe I am wrong about it. I have met a couple of helicopter parents in my lifetime and none of them were this outrageous. For me, it seems the story lost some steam towards the end. I would have preferred to add a layer of deeper feelings into the script. Also, I hope to never meet parents who would go to such extremes for their child.

2 ¾ stars