Some Kind Of Wonderful (1987, Dir. Howard Deutch)
Synopsis:
Working class, art student Keith (Eric Stotz) is desperately in love with Amanda Jones (Lea Thompson), one of the prettiest and most popular girls at his school. Despite the warnings of his tomboyish best friend Watts (Mary Stuart Masterson) – who is in love with him – he asks Amanda on date. Amanda accepts, mainly to annoy her cheating, slimy, rich boyfriend Hardy (Craig Shaffer). Even when it becomes clear to him what Amanda‘s motives were and that Hardy and his friends plan to beat him up at a party, Keith still doesn’t call off the date and even invests his savings buying Amanda some expensive earrings. Will he end up with Amanda or will he realize that he’s better off with someone else who really cares for him?
In my last couple of posts about lesser known films from director Sidney Lumet, I suggested that having a bunch of iconic films on your c.v. often means they overshadow the others, no matter how good they are. There’s a similar thing happening with Some Kind Of Wonderful, although, in this case, it’s not the director’s filmography that is the reason why this film is often overlooked. I don’t think it’s an overstatement to say that John Hughes invented the modern teen movie. Certainly there were plenty of other great teen movies made by other directors during the 80s but Hughes feels like the first to treat teenage issues and life seriously and make them the core of his stories, rather than, in the case of say WarGames or Back To The Future, part of a larger, more complex story. Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club and Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (which Hughes directed himself) and Pretty In Pink (which Deutch also directed) have deservedly become part of the pantheon of great teen movies. It’s perhaps unsurprising then that this film, which takes the premise of Pretty In Pink but swaps the genders of the main protagonists and reverses the eventual outcome, was looked on as retreading familiar ground and not as good as the first film.
However, in my opinion, this is every bit as good as it’s predecessor if not better. If anything, reversing the genders of the main protagonists makes for a much more interesting storyline – rather than the slightly prosaic „pretty girl can’t decide which guy to go out with“ narrative of the original. Lea Thompson‘s Amanda Jones isn’t a stereotypical spoilt little rich girl, and the scene where she responds to Keith‘s taunt that she’s been using him, by telling him he’s been using her too in idealizing her, putting her on a pedestal and showing off because she’s going out with him is a powerful moment that makes her much more sympathetic than she initially seems.
Ultimately, though this is a teen movie and a love story and deeper meanings should and are kept to a minimum and the focus is placed on funny, bittersweet moments: Keith deliberately getting himself detention to be with Amanda only to find she’s managed to get out of it by sweet talking one of the male teachers; Keith’s sister telling her friends she’s now “officially cool” because he’s going out with Amanda or Watts awkwardly pretending to be in love with another boy to make Keith jealous.
The performances of the three leads are great, as are John Ashton as Keith’s dad, Maddie Corman as his annoying little sister and a young Elias Koteas as school delinquent Duncan. The script is as sharp and as funny as you would expect it to be from Hughes and the editing by Bud Smith (who was a frequent collaborator of William Friedkin) is superb, but then Hughes always had great taste in editors. The Breakfast Club was edited by the great Dede Allen (Dog Day Afternoon) and Ferris Bueller’s Day Off by Paul Hirsch (Star Wars, Carrie).
Yes, the clothes and the music (by Pet Shop Boys and New Order producer) Stephen Hague, make the film an unmistakably 80s affair but that’s all part of the charm of a type of teen movie which is inextricably linked to that decade. Like Hughes’ other great movies, the ending feels satisfying and optimistic and yet realistic enough that it doesn’t feel like a fairytale. It’s this mixture of realism and teen romance which makes it an enjoyable watch even today.
