Having done volunteer work in this area, this movie is a fantastic portrayal of teenage alcoholism and how best to treat it. 15 year old Buff Sanders (Scott Baio) is a champion ice hockey player and son of a hard drinking former professional hockey player Ken (Don Murray). The mother/wife had been killed in a tragic car accident six years earlier and both father and son were struggling with unrequited grief both medicating it by drinking to excess. Buff's friend and teammate Billy Carpenter (Lance Kerwin) begins to notice the impact Buff's drinking is having on his game and his life. After an evening of drinking so much that he almost passed out and after being severely beaten by his father, Buff is admitted to hospital and then put into a rehab clinic.
His father has too much denial and anger to attend the nightly group counseling sessions and so Billy volunteers to ride the bus every evening and be that support person. Like treatment of many alcoholics, the process of recognizing the extent of the drinking problem takes time and this movie accurately explores the ups and downs of supporting an alcoholic in recovery. Eventually there is a reconciliation with his father as the true reasons of his mother's death comes out rather than the incorrect version of events that had fueled Buff's anger.
Scott Baio and Lance Kerwin were 18 when the movie was filmed and were both already teen superstars and both do a fantastic job in this movie. Kerwin was no stranger to intense and empathetic roles so his was the better performance but Baio did surprisingly well given his fame to this point had been built on more easy going characters. In a final irony, Kerwin plays the loyal, upright, responsible friend and always came across as the clean cut blond all American boy and yet struggled with drug addiction through his teens and yet Baio, playing the rough, rebellious and hard drinking kid had in fact, by the standards of many Hollywood teen heart throbs, a stable career free from chemical dependency.
His father has too much denial and anger to attend the nightly group counseling sessions and so Billy volunteers to ride the bus every evening and be that support person. Like treatment of many alcoholics, the process of recognizing the extent of the drinking problem takes time and this movie accurately explores the ups and downs of supporting an alcoholic in recovery. Eventually there is a reconciliation with his father as the true reasons of his mother's death comes out rather than the incorrect version of events that had fueled Buff's anger.
Scott Baio and Lance Kerwin were 18 when the movie was filmed and were both already teen superstars and both do a fantastic job in this movie. Kerwin was no stranger to intense and empathetic roles so his was the better performance but Baio did surprisingly well given his fame to this point had been built on more easy going characters. In a final irony, Kerwin plays the loyal, upright, responsible friend and always came across as the clean cut blond all American boy and yet struggled with drug addiction through his teens and yet Baio, playing the rough, rebellious and hard drinking kid had in fact, by the standards of many Hollywood teen heart throbs, a stable career free from chemical dependency.