Before there was “Duckie”, Jon Cryer played Charles Cummings, a young photographer smitten with Demi Moore’s twentysomething singer Laura Victor, in No Small Affair. After accidentally snapping a pic of Laura having a fight with her boyfriend, Charles searches her out, and they soon become friends. Charles, though, wants to be more and will do anything in his power to help her singing career break through, including executing a misbegotten grand romantic gesture. Cryer makes his film debut, replacing the previously cast Matthew Broderick, and has great onscreen chemistry with costar Demi Moore. It would be a few years before he got a shot at another leading role, but in this film Cryer has great presence out of the gate as the smart, sensitive and somewhat misguided teen.
“Mr. Schatzberg, who shows off a previously undemonstrated knack for comedy, also favors attention-getting bold strokes … these touches contribute to the film’s aura of unpredictability, which is one of its chief assets. Another is Vilmos Zsigmond, whose vibrant cinematography gives the film a bright, colorful gloss.” – Janet Maslin, The New York Times
Howard S. Berger writes about director Jerry Schatzberg on the New Beverly blog.
Marc Edward Heuck discusses No Small Affair on the New Beverly blog.
