Trouble at home has caused high schooler Christopher Collet to become embittered. The teenager has been rebelling at school and battling with his mother, who is dating a creepy new guy, but instead of seeking advice or aid from adults who may just be a bit more knowledgeable than he, Collet takes matters into his own hands. Pricelessly overripe piece of juvenalia--designed to get kids in the audience cheering--backfires when it becomes apparent that this young rebel has nothing in mind but time-worn solutions. Suburban melodrama wastes some fine actors, including Teri Garr, Peter Weller and Sarah Jessica Parker on tepid material. Clueless screenwriter Ron Koslow eventually shows his hand (and true intentions) once the scenario is turned into a lowbrow psycho-thriller. Definitely not hip. * from ****

(Some Spoilers) There was already trouble brewing at he Livingston home with the husband and father Alan Livingston , Richard Brandon,of the two young boys Jake and Brian, Christopher Collet & Corey Haim,leaving his wife Wendy, Terri Garr, for another woman Joanne, Gayle Harbor. Still you know that something is really hit the fan when the mysterious drifter Sam,Peter Weller, all of a sudden popped up and slowly wormed his way into Wendy's heart and into her home.

The two boys, especially Jake, saw right through Sam's phony front as a former independent contractor now working for this local security firm. In fact Sam was a low echelon coke dealer trying to make it to the big time in the local drug trafficking business.

With Wendy going through a bout of severe depression, by being left by herself, she was more then happy to get someone who she felt was a good husband, or boyfriend, and father to her two boys. Loving towards Wendy and friendly to Jake & Brian at first Sam begins to show his true colors feelings and motives. He tuns the family home into a local drug den where he deals with all these unsavory characters stooping over to buy and sell dope.

As insurance Sam gets Wendy hooked on coke to not only make her more dependent towards him, as her supplier, but also keep her and her boys from reporting him to the police. Sam uses the fear of Wendy's sons knowing that she'll be arrested along with him as a co-conspirator in his drug dealings.

The film "Firstborn" does a good job showing how an American family goes through a crisis period after it's left without it's bread-winner The movie not only reflects on the wife, Wendy, but the two children, Jake & Brian. The ending of the movie was about the only drawback to it by trying to tie everything together and make things Right. Not only for the Livingston family but even for Sam ,who despite being kicked out of the house, doesn't end up dead or even thrown behind bars for his criminal actions.

Teri Garr was exceptional in this movie. She had to be because I so loathed her character. Only a good actor/actress can make you loathe a loathsome character.

Wendy (Garr) was so superiorly weak and pathetic as both a mother and a girlfriend. She exuded insecurity and it manifested itself in the form of her sons walking all over her and eventually her boyfriend, Sam (Peter Weller),doing the same.

Wendy suffered from a dangerous emotional state called loneliness. Loneliness can cause a person to resort to all types of harmful activities. One such harmful activity is taking on a no-good boyfriend. Loneliness tends to cloud the judgment so that you can't properly see the glaring character flaws in a chosen mate.

Wendy's two sons saw the flaws, but that's a judgment that also may be skewed. Sam wasn't the boys' father which usually automatically makes him disliked. True, there may have been a tinge of resentment toward Sam because he wasn't their father, but Sam didn't help the matter by being a jerk.

As I'm saying that it needs to be noted that the kids weren't angels either. As a wise Bay Area sports radio host used to say, "Two things can be equally true." The boyfriend could be a jerk while the kids could also be spoiled brats. The two together are a very caustic mix.

Those were your elements to this feeble movie. You had a lonely and insecure mother, two bratty kids (especially the younger one),and a drug dealing jerk of a boyfriend.

"May I have another option Alex?"

Given these choices and a weak story to go with it, I wasn't moved.

What did we really have? Two kids with divorced parents and a mom with a boyfriend that was a bad influence. In other words, two kids that were similar to 30%, or more, of kids in America. Their situation wasn't ideal, but it wasn't tragic either. Speaking as a son that had divorced parents and saw various spouses this movie still didn't jibe with me. Wake me up when there's a real tragedy.