Listen To Me

Year releasted: 1989

by Nathan Rabin
August 21st, 2002

Tapping into the debating mania of the late '80s, 1989's Listen To Me stars Kirk Cameron as a chicken-farmer's son who was so poor, as he movingly recounts, that while growing up, he had to make his shoes out of tires and purchase clothes "from that famous designer, Goodwill." The recipient of a debating scholarship, Cameron sees competitive college debate as his way up the social ladder, as does plucky working-class gal Jami Gertz. After Cameron's good-old-boy charm and Gertz's shrill didacticism win each of them a place on the debate team, coach Roy Scheider announces that the finals will revolve around an issue that, like debating, always ensures huge box-office: abortion. When fancy-pants feminist Gertz asserts the legitimacy of a woman's right to choose, self-described "conservative shit-kicker" Cameron illustrates his mastery of the subtle nuances of persuasion by arguing that abortion lets feminists "kill millions of unborn little kids." Gertz and Cameron nevertheless become debating partners, and soon embark on a bonding-and-debating montage set to Little Richard's "Tutti Frutti." Meanwhile, Cameron's spoiled roommate (Timothy Quill) desperately wants to abandon debate and begin a writing career, but is forced to continue debating by his domineering father and the university's debate-crazed faculty. Much abortion-themed debate ensues, with the increasingly unhinged Quill arguing at one point that not allowing him to pursue his writing dreams represents an abortion of sorts, and Scheider telling a moving, though fictional, story of his mother's own back-alley abortion. Love eventually blooms amid all the talk of uterus-scraping, as Gertz and Cameron's mutual disdain gives way to affection and love. Quill's downward spiral culminates in an attempted sexual assault of Gertz, an altercation with Cameron, and finally suicide, which puts the debate team's future in doubt. Gertz and Cameron soldier on, however, making it to the televised debating finals, where they argue for overturning Roe vs. Wade. In front of the Supreme Court and a debate-crazed nation, Gertz scores major points by tearfully recounting being raped when she was 19, having an abortion, and living to regret it. Cameron follows with a sweeping indictment of America's moral decline, quoting his "good buddy Dostoyevsky" and inspiring waves of applause with his homespun oratory. After their team wins, the pair consummate their love in a climactic kiss before running down the steps of the Supreme Court, secure in the knowledge that they've finally resolved the abortion issue once and for all.