The film stars Andrew McCarthy as Clay, a college freshman returning home for Christmas to spend time with his ex-girlfriend Blair (Jami Gertz) and his friend Julian (Robert Downey Jr.), both of whom have become drug addicts.

Clay Easton is a straight-laced college freshman on the East Coast of the United States, who returns home to Los Angeles for Christmas to find things very different from the way he left them.

Ellis's book was originally optioned by producer Marvin Worth for $7,500 before its publication in June 1985 with the understanding that 20th Century Fox would finance it.

The book became a best seller but the producers had to create a coherent story and change Clay, the central character, because they felt that he was too passive.

"[2] Avnet instead wanted to transform "a very extreme situation" into "a sentimental story about warmth, caring and tenderness in an atmosphere hostile to those kinds of emotions".

Goldberg found the material distasteful but Barry Diller, the Chairman of Fox, wanted to make the film.

[4] Marek Kanievska was hired to direct because he had dealt with ambivalent sexuality and made unlikeable characters appealing in his previous film, Another Country (1984).

The studio wanted to appeal to actor Andrew McCarthy's teenage girl fans without alienating an older audience.

[5] At an early test screening, the studio recruited an audience from the ages of 15 to 24; they hated Robert Downey Jr.'s character.

For example, a high school graduation scene was shot to lighten the mood by showing the three main characters as good friends during better times.

Film historian Leonard Maltin gave it two-out-of-four stars, his most frequently given rating: "Bret Ellis' nihilistic story is sanitized into pointlessness, although chances are an entirely faithful adaptation would have turned everyone off; try to imagine this picture with Eddie Bracken, Veronica Lake, and Sonny Tufts.

The critical consensus reads: "A couple of standout performances -- notably Robert Downey, Jr. and James Spader -- and a killer soundtrack can't quite elevate a somewhat superficial adaptation of Bret Easton Ellis' story of drugged-out LA rich kids.

[11] In The New York Times, Janet Maslin wrote, "Mr. Downey gives a performance that is desperately moving, with the kind of emotion that comes as a real surprise in these surroundings.

"[12] Rita Kempley, in her review for The Washington Post, called the film, "noodle-headed and faint-hearted, a shallow swipe at a serious problem, with a happily-ever-after ending yet.

Yet, the movie has something great in it, something that could legitimately move teenagers (or anyone else): Robert Downey Jr. as the disintegrating Julian, a performance in which beautiful exuberance gives way horrifyingly to a sudden, startled sadness.

"[18] He admits that the film bears no resemblance to his novel but that it captured, "a certain youth culture during that decade that no other movie caught," and felt that it was miscast with the exception of Downey and Spader.