Pretty in Pink

1986 "The laughter. The lovers. The friends. The fights. The talk. The hurt. The jealousy. The passion. The pressure. The real world."
6.7| 1h37m| PG-13| en| More Info
Released: 28 February 1986 Released
Producted By: Paramount
Country: United States of America
Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
Official Website:
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Andie is an outcast, hanging out either with her older boss, who owns the record store where she works, or her quirky high school classmate Duckie, who has a crush on her. When one of the rich and popular kids at school, Blane, asks Andie out, it seems too good to be true. As Andie starts falling for Blane, she begins to realize that dating someone from a different social sphere is not easy.

Genre

Drama, Romance

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Pretty in Pink (1986) is now streaming with subscription on Paramount+

Director

Howard Deutch

Production Companies

Paramount

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Pretty in Pink Audience Reviews

ReaderKenka Let's be realistic.
Megamind To all those who have watched it: I hope you enjoyed it as much as I do.
Ariella Broughton It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.
Kien Navarro Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.
cricketbat Very 80s. Very high school. Pretty in Pink is a classic Brat Pack film that does a good job expressing some of the emotional drama that teenagers go through. I still don't see the appeal of Molly Ringwald, though.
Will K Molly Ringwald was without a doubt an icon, queen and legend of 80s films. She was in so many notable and culturally significant films, and this one is without a doubt her best work.You might expect this film to be of the comedic likes of Sixteen Candles, but it is anything but. With tinges of comedic aspects scattered throughout, the film takes a more dramatic and serious tone. Molly lives a poor life with her father who is unable to keep a job, and her mother left three years ago. We take a dive into her home life and her sweet relationship with her father, and the toll her mother's absence has taken on the family.This story is truly about "for richer or for poorer" as Molly becomes entangled with Andrew McCarthy, a rich kid at school. The plot follows her being ashamed of her financial status, and Andrew's friends taunting him for stooping down to date a poor girl.The story is truly one that will make your heart melt. However, we come to an ending that is as predictable as one could be. A cinematic kiss as the credits roll. Obviously this is to be expected for the ending of a film like THIS, but it's the exact same ending as Sixteen Candles. Save the ending, the film is truly a work of art.
Sean Lamberger One last collaboration for John Hughes and Molly Ringwald, whose creative partnership dissolved after this film. Somewhat softer and more self-serious than the preceding teen epics Sixteen Candles and The Breakfast Club, it tackles social cliques and classism from various perspectives. Ringwald and leading man Andrew McCarthy, akin to Romeo and Juliet, find their young relationship stressed by the negative influence of friends who insist they find someone closer to their own status. There really isn't much sparkle to the pairing, though, apart from a few awkward make-out scenes, and they both come off as especially wet noodles in comparison to the vibrant, brash supporting cast. Jon Cryer is most memorable of these as Duckie, a flamboyant mod who's been carrying a torch for Ringwald all his life, and nearly steals the film with an abrupt dance/lip-sync number just before everything gets overly angsty. Most of the third act is wasted on hand-wringing and moping, though, and the ending (changed at the last minute, much to Hughes's chagrin) feels disingenuous even if it does make a better fit for the movie's theme. The window dressings are drowned in '80s flavor, too, from the appropriately synthy soundtrack to the Halloween-grade costume choices. Looks like everyone at this school was either Don Johnson, Sid Vicious or Morrissey.
jimbo-53-186511 Andie (Molly Ringwald) is one of the 'unpopular' girls at school who is looked down on by some of the 'richer' girls at her school. Andie only has a couple of friends - one of which is a guy called Duckie (Jon Cryer) who has a big crush on her. To make matters worse Andie lives at home with her father Jack (Harry Dean Stanton) who is out of work and generally unmotivated. When Andie meets a rich boy who goes to her school called Blane (Andrew McCarthy) she believes that her prayers have been answered, but the course of true love doesn't run smoothly for Andie....I've watched quite a few of John Hughes' films and have liked quite a few of them (Weird Science, Planes Trains & Automobiles, Home Alone), but it seemed that a lot of the qualities that I've witnessed in his other films seemed to be missing hereThe first major problem here lies with characterisation and character development; take Molly Ringwald's character - she's depicted here as the poor girl who just wants a break in life and we're also led to believe that the rich girls are shallow and pretentious (which they are), but yet Andie is perceived as being just as shallow and pretentious as her peers. She openly admits that she's interested in Blane for his money and her viewpoint on Blane never seems to change throughout the film. It's one thing to offer a critique on shallow rich kids, but when the poor kid shows similar traits you're left with a screenplay that seems rather contradictory.This brings me on to the next big problem with this film; the male characters - on one hand you've got Duckie who is obsessed with Andie, but is unable to articulate his feelings towards her. This should create an endearing scenario, but the problem is that Duckie is anything but endearing and if anything he comes across as being creepy and annoying and the fact that he isn't a particular likable character only makes matters worse. Cryer's character is clearly supposed to be the 'funny guy' here and one's enjoyment of this film probably hinges on whether you find him funny or annoying here (well I can safely say that I fall into the latter camp). Next we come to Blane who is virtually the complete opposite to Duckie - given all the bad things I've said about Duckie you may think that this is a good thing, but trust me it is not. When I say different to Duckie, I mean that Blane is bland, boring and uninteresting. When evaluating these two characters one thought came to my head and that is; Why would Andie be interested in either of these guys? One who is immature, annoying and in-your-face creepy and the other who seems to have had a personality exorcism. As well as having many shallow and unlikeable characters the film never allows any of them to develop and as a consequence the story never really develops either; the film could have made more of an effort to explore the world in which the poor kids and the rich kids live in which would have made the narrative a little more insightful, but sadly it never really played out in this manner. James Spader's role as the school jock was interesting, but he's never really given anything to do and aimlessly flits in and out of the story. Going back to characters the only one I felt some pity for was Andie's dad (despite his flaws and the fact that he brought some of his problems on himself) I could see that he really cared for Andie and that one tender scene between the two of them towards the end of the film was probably the only real strong moment in the film.Another issue I had with this film is that it wasn't funny which is really surprising as Hughes can usually meld comedy and drama together really well, but in this film he gets neither element right. Although he didn't direct this film so I suppose it's unfair to lay all the blame at his door.As with The Breakfast Club, Hughes gives us an ending that is presumably meant to be heart-warming, but it just came across to me as forced and unrealistic. I kept wishing that Andie would just ditch both Duckie and Blane and find someone normal!!!! All in all there's very little that's good about this film and it basically lacks the insight, strong characterisation and a light-weighted sense of fun that I'm used to seeing from Hughes. Oh well I suppose all good filmmakers have an off day and Pretty In Pink is clearly a film that Hughes' knocked up on one of his off days.