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Critics Consensus: Molly Ringwald gives an outstanding performance in this sweet, intelligent teen comedy that takes an ancient premise and injects it with insight and wit.
Critic Consensus: Molly Ringwald gives an outstanding performance in this sweet, intelligent teen comedy that takes an ancient premise and injects it with insight and wit.
All Critics (46) | Top Critics (12) | Fresh (36) | Rotten (10) | DVD (9)
... in the end "Pretty in Pink" is as fraudulent as the junk it's supposed to transcend.
As irresistibly sweet as cotton candy.
First-Timer Howard Deutch is a nice surprise too. His precise, unexploitative direction is sympathetic to the awkward pauses in teen talk, to the mopery of first love, to the suicidal bravado of words spoken in heat.
These kids have a bumpy ride, but this is one film that identifies with their passions instead of indulging them, giving us a perfect back-seat view of kids out cruising, not for kicks but for a hard-earned sense of pride.
It's way too hackneyed for John Hughes. He's already shown us that he knows better.
When Molly Ringwald and Annie Potts are onscreen together, the movie is aglow. See Pretty In Pink or, years from now, you may suffer side effects from missing it.
Dated high school tale is still fun for teens.
Its deceptively soft title is a mask for a fairly powerful and pointed commentary on social standards, class differences and facades.
Pretty in Pink is an engaging movie about youthful concerns that never go out of fashion.
Unfortunately she gets straitjacketed in her current movie by a script that settles for black-and-white pronouncements instead of the delicate shades of gray that Ringwald employs.
It belts along pleasingly enough, but this frenetic, hard-edged comedy drama is too hackneyed to be entirely successful.
Hughes' penetrating insight into the minds of 1980s kids makes this one of the best films to bear his name.
A sweet coming-of-age story with an adorable sense of humor, an awesome soundtrack and some superb performances by Stanton, Cryer and Potts, and if the end may not please you (like it did please me), the sincere way the movie shows the insecurities of youth definitely will.
Super Reviewer
In typical John Hughes fashion, Pretty in Pink is nostalgic, beautifully-filmed, touchingly honest, and wonderfully enjoyable.
I had moderately high expectations for "Pretty In Pink" because I enjoyed John Hughes's (superior) "Sixteen Candles," and I was already familiar with its parody in "Not Another Teen Movie." I was ultimately disappointed though mainly because Andie's prom dress is a Pepto Bismol atrocity. Just kidding. The poor girl-rich guy love story rang even falser. Blane and Andie's attraction is just googly-eyed faux-chemistry. What is this "something" that he sees in her? (I'm sure we, the audience, see it cuz Molly Ringwald rocks, but there's no scene in the movie that shows her striking his fancy.) What does she see in him? Is he that different from his richie rich friends, or doesn't he still just get by on his high class looks and sophisticated charm? On the date, he is incredibly naive about his friends' anticipated reception, and he does say some unintentionally condescending things that would rub me the wrong way. The class conflict is also slightly incidental and doesn't come across as a problem until the date. We know that Andie is poor, but it's unclear that she pays to attend a rich private high school with students who bully her for her relative penury. I thought it was just for her independent, free-spirited ways. I'm also more than a little perturbed that the parody of Andie and Duckie's friendzoniest of friendzones is almost without exaggeration! Everyone is so totally oblivious! Even after Andie comes home and says, "I'm in love," her dad doesn't automatically assume she's talking about Duckie, who earlier confessed his love for her to Jack. Jon Cryer as Duckie is just charming and devoted as all-get-out, albeit embarrassingly silly and slightly clingy. His tell-off speech is probably the best dramatic work I've seen of Cryer's, which is a shame. That's not to say I necessarily wanted Andie to end up with the friendzoned best friend (because unconditional idolatry bordering on obsession isn't what she wants or needs either), but his prom date savior move and sacrificial all-but-slow-clapping endorsement of Blane's bland non-apology is just too much and too sad.
Blane: You said you couldn't be with someone who didn't believe in you. Well I believed in you. I just didn't believe in me. I love you... always. "He's crazy about her. She's crazy about him. He's just crazy." I finally got around to watching one of John Hughes' classic high school movies, and I have to say Pretty in Pink lived up to the classic Hughes status. I didn't quite like it as much as The Breakfast Club, but Pretty in Pink is something special in its own right. It has a good, if pretty typical story at the heart of it, but what makes it special is Hughes' brilliant writing and the characters, which are all great. The cast also comes through perfectly and Jon Cryer might have stolen the whole show, with an offbeat, but emotional performance as Duckie. Andie is a poor girl who attends a school that has a lot of rich kids. The rich kids and the poor kids hate each other. When Blane(a rich) starts showing signs of liking Andie, she can't believe it could be true. Then Blane asks her out and then to the prom, she is extremely excited. The only problem is that Blane's friends don't approve because Andie is poor and Andie's friends don't approve because Blane is rich. Well mostly it's just Duckie that doesn't approve, and his love for Andie makes things even more complicated for a girl feeling love for the first time. There's a lot to like about Pretty in Pink. From the performances to the dialogue to the characters; it's a movie that has beauty in just about everything. At points, the movie gets a little too sappy or corny, but for the most part it gets a good majority of the high school scene and the first feelings of love down pretty good. This is one of those movies that a lot of guys don't really care to look into. Pretty in Pink doesn't really get too many guys excited, but this really is worth the time. Hughes was, in a way, a genius, in how he explored and pretty much perfected the high school drama/comedy/romance. This is just another perfect example of that.
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