Review of Some Kind of Wonderful (1987) by Marissa K — 04 Nov 2010

I cannot believe it took me 27 years to see "Some Kind of Wonderful". I'm roughly 12 years late on it. Having been a devotee of Hughes' Chicago trilogy (The Breakfast Club, Sixteen Candles, Pretty in Pink) it seems nonsensical that it took me this long to sit down with this one, but there it is.

By this time, you all know the story right? Girl loves boy, boy loves other (hotter, more popular) girl, (hotter, more popular) girl comes to see the error of her ways, and in the end, all is right with the world. In this one, "boy" is artistic (and therefore outcast) Keith, "girl" is his best friend and drumming fanatic Watts, and the other (hotter, more popular) girl is Lea Thompson.

I think I would have felt differently about this movie when I was 15, but at 27, there was some small sense of disconnect, which makes me sad. That being said, the characters are put in such a situation that it's hard NOT to root for all of them. That was the beauty of Hughes' writing though. The characters and situations are all familiar, so they're innately relatable.

I think my inability to connect with Some Kind of Wonderful might be because it's based around Amanda Jones (Lea Thompson). Hughes should have known better. If you want more sympathy from the female audience, you don't base the main character on the prettiest girl in school. Technically, the main character is Keith, but there is much less focus on Watts and Keith than I would have assumed. The weird thing about waiting this long to see this movie is that, by now, Hughes' films have snuck into the social consciousness and I feel like I've heard references to this film for at least 10 years. My expectations were high.

I was slightly disappointed by Stoltz's seemingly monotone delivery, but both Masterson and Thompson hold up their ends of the bargain, with Masterson nicely shading Watts' emotions. The final scene where she turns around with a tear-streaked face, but with a look that still says "I'll punch you in the mouth" is fantastic.

The nicest surprise for me was Elias Koteas. Starting out as the bad boy in a leather jacket with cigarettes and booze on school grounds, his scenes with Keith in detention are great, understated moments, as well as his party-crashing maneuver at the end. in a somewhat ironic twist, although throughout the course of the movie we come to know his name is "Duncan", he's only referred to as "skinhead" in the credits, an interesting take on individuality versus archetype. I suppose the audience wasn't really supposed to take that much interest in the minor characters.

For some reason, this didn't feel as complete a movie as "The Breakfast Club" or "Sixteen Candles", to me, but that's not to say that it isn't enjoyable. Even on it's worst day, John Hughes' writing is more nostalgically enjoyable and more socially reflective (at least for a certain corner of suburbia) than roughly 80% of the movies out there, especially today.