Rotten Tomatoes
Cancel Movies Tv shows FanStore News Showtimes

Secret Admirer

Play trailer Poster for Secret Admirer R 1985 1h 37m Comedy Play Trailer Watchlist
Watchlist Tomatometer Popcornmeter
33% Tomatometer 12 Reviews 65% Popcornmeter 2,500+ Ratings
Michael Ryan (C. Thomas Howell) has been in love with Deborah Ann (Kelly Preston) for as long as he can remember, not realizing that his female best friend, Toni Williams (Lori Loughlin), is secretly pining for him. He leaves Deborah Ann an anonymous love letter and soon the two begin a relationship -- while a jealous Toni is forced to watch from afar. Meanwhile, the letter is found by Deborah Ann's parents and sparks suspicion and accusations of philandering among them and their neighbors.

Critics Reviews

View All (12) Critics Reviews
Paul Attanasio Washington Post Director David Greenwalt has brought "Secret Admirer" a sense of visual style, some energy and a few good zingers, but the movie (which he cowrote with Jim Kouf) is smothered by the formula. Jan 4, 2018 Full Review Matt Brunson Film Frenzy And so it goes in this often idiotic comedy that’s largely saved by its interlocked plot thread. Rated: 2.5/4 Apr 30, 2023 Full Review Preston Barta Fresh Fiction This 1985 comedy of errors is a total surprise and undervalued movie. It doesn’t capitalize on its full potential, but it’s damn funny and admittedly charming when it goes for it. Rated: B Apr 18, 2023 Full Review David Nusair Reel Film Reviews A rather forgettable romantic comedy... Rated: 2.5/4 Dec 30, 2013 Full Review Emanuel Levy EmanuelLevy.Com Rated: 2/5 Jul 23, 2005 Full Review Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat Spirituality & Practice Starts well, but the early comic buoyancy deflates quickly. Rated: 1/5 Aug 21, 2004 Full Review Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

View All (154) audience reviews
justin r Likeable teen comedy with some good moments lead by a talented young cast. ** 1/2 out of ****. Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars 03/31/23 Full Review Audience Member Never get tired of this 80's gem.All the performances are great in this,especially by Fred Ward who is a riot in this.The theme song No Secrets by Van Stephenson was great too. Rated 5 out of 5 stars 01/29/23 Full Review euler n Surprisingly fun. Teens, high school, parties, comedy, romance, Los Angeles, pop-rock, eighties. Not genial, but above average for the genre. Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 03/31/23 Full Review Audience Member It looks like Lori Loughlin got her start in forging letters and deception earlier than we realized. The story amounts to a retelling of Cyrano de Bergerac, but instead of a huge honkered hero, the face behind the words belongs to the undeniably gorgeous Loughlin, who, for some reason, all the other characters deny is gorgeous. That said, I do like the basic idea and setting of Cyrano in high school; though if they remade it today, the letters would be replaced with DMs—maybe they could call it SIRI KNOWS. 🤥 At least it features Doug Benson as an extra in a couple scenes. Rated 2 out of 5 stars 01/30/23 Full Review Audience Member Michael Ryan (C. Thomas Howell) is a high school student who receives an anonymous love letter. Michael is obsessed with Deborah Ann Fimple (Kelly Preston), the class beauty, and his best friend, Roger (Casey Siemaszko), convinces him that the letter is from her. However, he is totally oblivious that his friend Toni Williams (Lori Loughlin) is in love with him. Michael writes Deborah Ann an anonymous love letter in return, and asks Toni to give it to her. Toni reads the letter and realizing it's poorly written and unromantic (since Michael had copied words from greeting cards), she rewrites it. Elizabeth Fimple (Leigh Taylor-Young), Deborah Ann's mother, discovers the letter. Her jealous police officer husband, Lou Fimple (Fred Ward), sees her reading it. He steals the letter, and believes that his wife is having an affair. He suspects his neighbor (and bridge partner) George Ryan. George also reads the letter (although by mistake) because Lou's wife is his night school teacher and it somehow ends up in his book. When George asks her about it, he assumes she wants to have an affair with him, despite the fact his wife and she are friends. Meanwhile, Lou shows the letter to George's wife, Connie, and proposes that they expose the adulterers. Receiving no response from Deborah Ann, Michael writes a second letter, which Toni again rewrites. Michael experiences a series of wacky adventures with his friends throughout the summer before his Senior year in High School. After Toni arranges a meeting between the two, he tells Deborah Ann that he wrote the love letters, and she finally agrees to a real date, during which they are almost caught by Debbie's jock college "quasi boyfriend" Steve (Scott McGinnis), but Toni intervenes by pretending to seduce him and later ditches him. After a short while Michael realizes Deb is snobby and shallow, not like he expected her to be and begins to realize his true feelings for Toni... In a negative review, Janet Maslin of The New York Times wrote that the initial concept might have sounded good. Maslin called Fred Ward the film's "sole ray of sunshine". Time Out London compared it negatively to French sex farces and said that it offers no insights. TV Guide rated it 1/5 stars and wrote, "This cross between theatrical farce and teen sex comedy is a moronic package that liberally insults the intelligence of both its viewing audience and the hapless adult actors locked into career low points." Reviewing the film retrospectively, Sarah D. Bunting of Slant Magazine called it "relatively good", which she defines as "not unwatchable" in terms of teen films. "Secret Admirer" is a classic 80s charming high school comedy and one of those films I grew up with as a teen which in many ways created a longing for going to an American High School. I did however end up at a university in Australia later on in life, but that´s another story. The plotline is funny and all the situations the letter creates is quite slapsticky, and yes the film is a bit naive as well, however that is ok as the film doesn´t really take itself that seriously. We get all the ingredients you want in a high school comedy and it delivers. Lori Loughlin is prettier than the prettiest and she is the highlight of the film. Who wouldn´t fall madly in love with her? It was a treat to re-see "Secret Admirer" after so many years again. Trivia: This film was part of an intense, front-page-of-newspapers scandal in Puerto Rico in early March of 2016 when it was revealed that writer/director Eduardo Ortíz had basically plagiarized it almost in its entirety - word-for-word, scene-for-scene, and shot-for-shot - when he did his film Vasos De Papel (2016), and had tried to make everybody believe that the screenplay had been created and written by himself. The film had only been playing at Puerto Rican cinemas for a few days when the first articles pointing out the similarities between the two films, and pointing out that there was no mention anywhere of it being based on 'Secret Admirer', arose. Once the film was no longer being shown in cinemas across Puerto Rico, Mr. Ortíz first issued a statement saying that there were "certain similarities between one film and the other, not plagiarism. Everything is a matter of interpretation". Only a few hours after making that statement, Mr. Ortíz changed it, saying in a radio interview that he "had done something terribly wrong", and apologizing to his cast and crew. Mr. Ortíz had ignored and/or refused to comment on the issue until actress Natalia Lugo, who played the lead on Vasos De Papel (2016), released a statement on social media where she both condemned the film and expressed the embarrassment she felt when she saw 'Secret Admirer', and came to understand how she and her fellow actors and crew had been duped. Rated 3 out of 5 stars 02/21/23 Full Review Audience Member What a fun & silly romance from the 80’s! One of my faves from the era! :) Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 03/24/18 Full Review Read all reviews
Secret Admirer

My Rating

Read More Read Less POST RATING WRITE A REVIEW EDIT REVIEW

Cast & Crew

Movie Info

Synopsis Michael Ryan (C. Thomas Howell) has been in love with Deborah Ann (Kelly Preston) for as long as he can remember, not realizing that his female best friend, Toni Williams (Lori Loughlin), is secretly pining for him. He leaves Deborah Ann an anonymous love letter and soon the two begin a relationship -- while a jealous Toni is forced to watch from afar. Meanwhile, the letter is found by Deborah Ann's parents and sparks suspicion and accusations of philandering among them and their neighbors.
Director
David Greenwalt
Producer
Stephen J. Roth, Jim Kouf
Screenwriter
Jim Kouf, David Greenwalt
Production Co
Orion Pictures
Rating
R
Genre
Comedy
Original Language
English
Release Date (Streaming)
Jan 15, 2019
Runtime
1h 37m
Sound Mix
Surround