She kicks ass, she gives good arabesque, and her boyfriend's in the Mob! She's Faith! But for whom is this action film about a young German ballerina's adventures on Hollywood Boulevard intended?
After moving to Beverly Hills following a long-term military assignment in Germany, Faith (Sylvia Seidel) loses her mom and dad in a plane crash. With her parents' estate tied up in litigation, Faith becomes a pawn in the foster care maze, which shunts her off to a couple who pay kickbacks to a
greedy social worker, Kate Davis (Gwen Somers). Peeved about her foster parents refusal to pay for her pointe class, headstrong Faith runs away to Hollywood Boulevard, where she spars with the least menacing Chicano toughs in cinema history. Saved in the nick of time from teenage gang rape by a
gorgeous Italian hoodlum named Tony (Richard Maldone), Faith overlooks the fact that he's a leg man for his Mafioso Uncle Sal (Len Lesser). Sensing his finer qualities, Faith moves in with the impeccably dressed mobster. Tony hides her and uses his mafia muscle to secure her admission to Hollywood
High.
As Davis scours Hollywood Boulevard, hoping to insure that her kickback scheme isn't uncovered, Tony re-evaluates his lifestyle. Thwarting the foster care bylaws at every turn, Faith lands a job in a new musical film. Meanwhile, Tony vows revenge after experiencing a recovered childhood memory
of Sal killing his dad. Sneaking onto Sal's drugladen yacht, Tony grapples with Sal for his gun which fires, ricochets, and blows up the pleasure cruiser. Forgiven by Mafia bigwigs, Tony gives up his unsavory crime activities and decides to build a future with his underage girlfriend.
The sheer unbelievability of this film's plot is awesome. On the verge of being deflowered in an alley, Faith is saved by a handsome young capo who doesn't make a move on her for weeks. And how many crimeland lieutenants are given permission to walk away from the Organization without cement
shoes? Wallowing in the perversely enjoyable tour of Hollywood's lower depths, the viewers biggest concern may be counting how many times Faith's dance interludes interrupt the plot. Even if there is a market for this combination of fisticuffs and fouettes, surely adolescent viewers deserve more
formidable villains than FAITH's babyfaced street gang, the most benign juvenile delinquents since the aging Jets and Sharks high-kicked their way through WEST SIDE STORY. The film's tone is wildly uneven; every character or element that might have lent genuine weight to Faith's quandary is
severely undercut by the filmmakers. Perhaps their goal is to turn FAITH into popcorn escapism for teen girls tired of Karate Kids and all those male sidekicks in Schwarzenegger pictures. (Violence, profanity, sexual situations.) leave a comment
