Can’t Buy Me Love Synopsis: An outcast secretly pays the most popular girl in school one thousand dollars to pretend to be his girlfriend for a month.
Nerdy Ronald Miller has spent all summer mowing lawns to purchase an expensive telescope. Cindy Mancini is the most popular girl in school, dating a college guy and wracking up debt on her mom’s credit cards. When Cindy borrows one of her mother’s expensive suede outfits for a party, she finds herself distressed after the outfit gets ruined, and the department store won’t let her exchange it.
Ronald witnesses Cindy’s desperation and suddenly offers his $1000 in mowing money to buy a new outfit for her mother… but there’s a catch. Cindy has to pretend to date Ronald for a month to get him in with the popular crowd. At first, Cindy balks at the offer, but aware of how much trouble she would get in for destroying one of her mother’s expensive outfits, she finally agrees. Ronald can finally see what it’s like to be part of the popular crowd, but all the attention changes Ronald for the worse.
Can’t Buy Me Love is dripping in 80s aesthetic. That makes sense because it was released in 1987, but it’s so 80s. The music! The clothes! The jokes!
I don’t know; I think Sixteen Candles really put me on edge for watching these John Hughes-ish type films of this era. Honestly, though, Can’t Buy Me Love wasn’t as horrible as I expected. I enjoyed both Patrick Dempsey and the late Amanda Peterson in this film. They had a decent amount of chemistry together, and I wish the movie had kept them together longer than they did.
After Cindy and Ronald’s one month is up, the rest of the movie is about Ronald being a total dick to just about everyone. Obnoxious and full of himself, it was difficult to like anything about him, and when he finally got his comeuppance, it was more satisfying than sad. I couldn’t quite understand what was so appealing about the in-crowd either. They were vapid and borderline cruel, not to mention that the “popular crowd” seemed to consist of six people. They fell victim to the one-dimensional “mean kids” trope that did absolutely nothing to add anything interesting to the story.
Anyway, a teeny Seth Green plays Ronald’s younger brother Chuckie, and he’s definitely one of the movie’s highlights. Amanda Peterson had the talent to become a big star, and what happened to her is a shame. We all know what became of Patrick Dempsey, and I can admit that despite hating his character, he was a cutie in this movie.
There’s nothing memorable to be taken from Can’t Buy Me Love. It’s the same journey of teenage angst that you see in many 80s teen movies. Are there some cute moments? Absolutely! But I think the movie got derailed halfway through and never quite recovered. Also, I don’t get the title – money can and did buy Ronald love… maybe not directly, but it’s the money that pushed Cindy into his life. Am I reading too much into it? Probably.
Watched: 04/07/2022
Notable Song: Can’t Buy Me Love by The Beatles
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