Set in a fictitious small midwestern town, this film follows Tim Pearson (C. Thomas Howell), a recent high school graduate itching to flee his boring community. During the summer he meets Michelle Cody (Jamie Lee Curtis), a 27-year-old woman who is trying to keep the demolition derby she
inherited from her father. At the track is Ernie Webster (Patrick Swayze), a likable blue-collar type who went to high school with Michelle and still harbors deep feelings for her as his marriage to the bubbleheaded Candy (Jennifer Jason Leigh) collapses. However, she is drawn to teenager Tim and
begins an affair with him in an effort to recapture the days when she wasn't saddled with so much responsibility. While GRANDVIEW U.S.A. suffers from some misguided humor (there are two fantasy sequences shot as parodies of rock videos and they don't really work) and scant scripting, the
performances of Curtis and Howell are engaging. It is a small film, with small, and at times cliched, ideas about rural life, but there is a sweetness about it that is an appealing and refreshing change from the usual roller-coaster films that bombard audiences in the summer.
