Starring: Chris O'Donnell, Drew Barrymore, Matthew Lillard, Richard Chaim, Robert Nadir Director: Antonia Bird Year of release: 1995 Country: USA (click to enlarge)

It's got Drew Barrymore in it - do I really need to say any more? O'Donnell (school ties) stars as Matt, a straight-laced student and rower with high hopes of going to college. Barrymore is Casey, a mentally ill girl from out of town who likes taking risks. Matt spends his evenings spying on Casey through his telescope (mmmm... nice). Finally, he stops stalking and asks her out on a date, and they fall for each other (well, into bed with each other anyway). Nutter girl's parents think the 'relationship' is a bad idea and stop them seeing each other - so she takes an overdose and ends up in an institution from which her boyfriend "springs" her. They run away to Mexico together until she goes really loopy-loo and they are forced to return home so she can get proper mental care from professionals. The end.

The action is set around Seattle, and starts promisingly with shots of rowing eights in the opening credits, including close-ups of Chris O'Donnell rowing (He rowed during high school for Loyola Academy in Wilmette until the acting bug hit and does indeed do his own rowing in the film). The Seattle based Green Lake Crew, apparently spent 3 days posing as the high school crew after the film's location scouts noticed all the water and decided that the male lead could be converted from a football player to a rower. Green lake supplied equipment and approx 20 junior rowers for the shooting in Summer 1994 for which the producers paid them a total of $2,500... After the intro though, the rowing references are limited to background glimpses of boats on trailers and rowing through trees... oh, and O'Donnell's "US rowing T-Shirt".