Review of Love Finds Andy Hardy

The first five minutes of Love Finds Andy Hardy are really cute. Lewis Stone, head of the Hardy household, is a benevolent judge with a sweet rapport with Fay Holden, his wife. Unfortunately, the only reason the movie started out cute was because Mickey Rooney, the lead, hadn't showed up yet. I don't know what he was trying to do or why he thought it was a good idea to do it, but watching this movie will make you absolutely despise him. He acts like he's been kicked in the head by a mule, his hormones are out-of-control and make him a selfish jerk, and his punchy energy makes him seem like a marionette whose main goal is to become a "real boy".

Once again, I found myself talking through another terrible movie in order to keep my sanity. Judy Garland's strange posture and way of walking would have warranted criticism on its own, but the way her character was written deserves much more of that. Mickey Rooney is a callous hormone-crazed jerk who tries to take advantage of every girl he meets, but for some reason, Judy's crazy about him and tries to win him for herself. Nothing about their scenes together makes sense, and compared to his lunatic facial expressions, she seemed enormously depressed during each of her lines.

Unless you want to see Mickey Rooney as an insane bobblehead, skip this one and pick another Andy Hardy movie. They made sixteen of them.