text: Production In reference to the bed scene between Laura Dern and Lukas Haas, director Martha Coolidge said Lukas was sort of the perfect age to play the part of Buddy. "It was important not to have a child, because the scene would have been unpleasant. It was also important not to have a man, because the scene would have meant something else." Capitalizing on the actor's curiosity about sex, Coolidge said, "Lukas knows that acting is living. He has made 25 movies. His great gift in Rambling Rose is that he shared something important, his first experience with sex, with the audience. Yet the whole scene is an illusion, except when he touches Laura's breasts."
  Reception
  The film received overwhelmingly positive reviews. On Rotten Tomatoes, it has a 100% approval rating, based on 20 reviews. Peter Travers of Rolling Stone praised the storytelling and performances, summarizing the film as "beauty." Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film 3 out of 4 stars, saying "The movie is all character and situation, and contains some of the best performances of the year, especially in the ensemble acting of the four main characters." On his TV program with Gene Siskel, both critics gave it a thumbs up. Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly gave the film a B, extolling the performances, particularly Dern. He wrote that, "No young actress today can play emotionally hungry postadolescents with such purity and yearning."