I found myself more saddened than I expected myself to be over the tragic death of
Corey Haim. My eleven and twelve year old self would beg my mom to buy me every teeny bopper magazine from Bop to Tiger Beat every time I accompanied her to the grocery store and I would lovingly clip the photos of my current celebrity crushes and paste them to my bedroom walls. Corey Haim was of course one of these crushes along with
Chad Allen (I didn't know he was gay, I swear!),
Kirk Cameron (I didn't know he was a religious nut, I swear!), and, the ultimate hearthrob of my younger days,
River Phoenix (thinking of his untimely death still breaks my heart). I must have watched
Lucas,
License to Drive,
The Lost Boys, and
Dream a Little Dream dozens and dozens of times in order to bask in the boyish charm of Corey Haim with his lopsided grin, spiky hair, and squeaky voice. Of those films
Lucas holds up the best. It is still a remarkably touching story of a geeky boy who never quite fits in until his showy ploy to impress the girl of his dreams grabs the attention of everyone around him with his bravery in the face of his stupidity. I watched this film just a few months ago when I came across it on cable and the final scene where Lucas finds the letterman jacket in his locker and all the kids applaud him still makes me tear up a little. From now on when I watch this film, and I have no doubt that I will watch it again, it will be with an entirely new level of sadness in realizing that all the promise Corey showed with this role was never realized and now that he is gone, never will be.
Rest in peace, Corey.
