Blu-ray Review: “Pretty In Pink” Has Not Aged Well Over The Years

A poor girl must choose between the affections of dating her childhood sweetheart or a rich but sensitive playboy.

As someone who was born in the ’70s and grew up in the ’80s, I had a penchant for all things John Hughes; “Sixteen Candles,” “The Breakfast Club,” “Weird Science,” and “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.” By the time “Pretty in Pink” came along in 1986, the studio kept promoting it as “A John Hughes Production,” which is very misleading for cinemagoers as the majority of them mistook it for another movie directed by Hughes himself. In reality, he did not direct it, instead, he wrote it and produced it but Howard Deutch was the actual director.

“Pretty in Pink” was his directorial debut and he would go on to direct “Some Kind of Wonderful,” “The Great Outdoors,” and “Grumpier Old Men” but he did not possess the teenage perspective that was so inherent in Hughes and as a result, “Pretty in Pink,” while a modest hit upon its release, paled in comparison to Hughes’ earlier releases. Deutch brought a more sophisticated element to the film and although Hughes wrote the script, the maturity level was more evident than in any previous Hughes picture and may have contributed to its less-than-stellar box office returns as audiences still very much wanted the fun and innocence that came before.

In “Pretty in Pink,” Andie (Molly Ringwald) attends high school and lives with her unemployed father Jack (Harry Dean Stanton) in a working-class suburb of Chicago. Andie’s best friend, Duckie (Jon Cryer), is in love with her but has never had the courage to tell her and feels like he’ll never get out of the friend zone. At school, both Andie and Duckie are harassed by the rich kids until one day, Blane (Andrew McCarthy), one of the wealthier students in the school, approaches Andie and asks her out. At first, she is hesitant, knowing he is from a prominent background while her working-class upbringing feels more like a hindrance, especially in front of Blane. She eventually agrees to go out with him and he enjoys being with her but is under constant pressure from his rich friends to drop her as they see her as an embarrassment.

They plan several dates but he ends up backing out, grappling with what decision to make and Andie begins to see him in a different light. As the prom fast approaches, Duckie and Andie get into a huge argument as he doesn’t want to see her with anyone else and they stop being friends. Andie decides to go to the prom alone and while there, both Duckie and Blane show up, by themselves, and she must decide who she wants to spend the rest of her life with.

The character of Duckie, who is supposed to come off as the quirky and capricious best friend, instead comes across as a manic stalker as he admits to riding his bike in front of Andie’s house every single day, just so he can see more of her. Seeing her and hanging out with her in school is not enough, he must then parade himself up and down her street in the hopes that she’ll go to him. He continuously turns up unannounced at the record store where Andie works after school and proceeds to take over every conversation she may be having with someone else and he becomes a major irritation. And Blane, who initially comes across as a nice guy, in spite of his wealthy lineage, proves to be a huge wimp, as he consistently caves into his arrogant and pompous best friend Steff’s (James Spader) requests to not pursue her as he feels she is trash and who we learn despises her only because she once turned him down. By the end of the film, it comes down to Andie having to pick Blane or Duckie and honestly, she should have dropped them both and left the prom alone as neither were worthy.

Molly Ringwald, Jon Cryer, and Andrew McCarthy have given better performances in better movies over the years but here, they genuinely appear bored, like they just want to get through every scene and finish the film. James Spader made a name for himself back in the ’80s playing sleazy and unlikeable characters and he knocks this one out of the ballpark too, you just want to reach into the screen and slap him upside the head. The only redeeming performances are that of Harry Dean Stanton as Andie’s dad Jack and Annie Potts, as Andie’s co-worker Iona, whenever they appear onscreen, they elevate the movie but then it subsides as quickly as they are gone. I never got the praise for “Pretty in Pink” and I feel had John Hughes actually directed it, it would not have made much of a difference because, in the end, it was Hughes’ hackneyed and conventional script that was the driving force behind it, and no amount of exceptional character development or story exposition would have been enough to save it.

“Pretty in Pink” arrives on Blu-ray for the first time ever June 16th