I first saw The Sterile Cuckoo my first year in college when I was the same age as the characters. It hit home then but it took 40 years for me to realize the depth and beauty of this simple story of a lost and lonely college freshman girl who tries too hard and a straight-laced college freshman lad. From the opening, this story grabbed my heart and just would not let go. The sound track of Come Saturday Morning by the Sandpipers will echo in my soul for a long long time. The opening of the older, widowed father sending his little girl off to college, wanting just a touch of warmth from her and getting nothing. And then the bittersweet story of Pookie Adams finding her first love and Jerry who was dragged unwillingly into his own first love, discovering each other and the joy and pain, until finally they grow apart. The last scene of this lost and lonely little girl back on the bus with no place to go and no one to love her, her first love standing there with his hands in his pockets watching her go. My heart ripped in pieces. Yes, Pookie was just about as unlikeable as they come but her vulnerability makes you want to hold her close just like Jerry did. I have no idea why Liza Minelli did not win the Oscar in this her first movie. She certainly should have. Yes, the movie has some anachronisms that the young audience of today might find amusing, like dial telephones, but this is a one of a kind experience I would recommend to all.
Review of The Sterile Cuckoo
