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Some Kind of Wonderful (film)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
(Redirected from Hardy Jenns)

Some Kind of Wonderful
Theatrical release poster
Directed byHoward Deutch
Written byJohn Hughes
Produced byJohn Hughes
Starring
CinematographyJan Kiesser
Edited byBud Smith
Music byStephen Hague
John Musser
Production
company
Distributed byParamount Pictures
Release date
  • February 27, 1987 (1987-02-27)
Running time
95 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Box office$18.5 million[1]

Some Kind of Wonderful is a 1987 American teen romantic drama film directed by Howard Deutch and starring Eric Stoltz, Mary Stuart Masterson, and Lea Thompson. It is one of several successful teen dramas written by John Hughes in 1987. The film had its premiere in Hollywood on February 23, 1987, and widely released theatrically in the United States on February 27.

Plot

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The film is set against the strict social hierarchy of an American public high school in the San Pedro area of Los Angeles. Blue-collar mechanic and aspiring artist Keith Nelson is best friends with tomboy drummer Watts. Keith's father, Cliff, is obsessed with sending him to college for business, as he would be the first in their family to go.

Keith is enamored with Amanda Jones, one of the most popular girls in school, who is dating Hardy Jenns, a spoiled and selfish boy from a wealthy neighborhood. However, Amanda herself is not wealthy.

Keith gets himself in trouble to spend time with Amanda, but she talks her way out of it, and he is stuck with the school troublemakers, eventually making friends with Duncan (a cool punk rock youth).

Watts is dismissive of Keith's crush, until he begins dating Amanda, realizing she loves Keith.

Keith ultimately realizes he is in love with Watts and bids Amanda goodbye.

Cast

[edit]

Production

[edit]

Deutch and Hughes were not happy with the ending of their previous collaboration Pretty in Pink (1986); in the script and the original cut of the film Andy (Molly Ringwald) wound up with her best friend Duckie (Jon Cryer). Test audiences disliked that ending, however, so a new ending was shot where Andy wound up with Blane (Andrew McCarthy).[2]

With Some Kind of Wonderful, Hughes decided to re-tell the story, but with the sexes of the main characters switched. Hughes named the three main protagonists—Keith, Watts, and Amanda Jones—as an inside-joke tribute to the Rolling Stones (Keith Richards, Charlie Watts, and the Stones' song "Miss Amanda Jones", respectively).[3][4] Hughes wanted Ringwald to play the female lead role of Watts, but she declined in order to pursue more adult roles; she also thought the character of Amanda seemed too similar to the character she played in The Breakfast Club.[5] Hughes took this refusal personally, and it led to the end of Hughes's and Ringwald's working relationship.[citation needed]

Martha Coolidge was signed to direct Some Kind of Wonderful. Mary Stuart Masterson was cast as Watts. In addition to Masterson, Coolidge cast Eric Stoltz as Keith.[6] Coolidge's vision of the film, which was darker than the eventual product, attracted Stoltz to the role.[7] Unhappy with Coolidge, Hughes fired her and hired Deutch to direct. Original cast members Kim Delaney (Amanda Jones) and Kyle MacLachlan (Hardy Jenns) were fired shortly after.[8] Deutch offered Lea Thompson the role of Amanda, but she initially turned him down. However, after the Thompson-starring Howard the Duck flopped at the box office, she accepted a second offer to take the role.[9] Deutch and Thompson started dating after filming was completed, and they got married in 1989.[10]

This film would have marked a third collaboration of both Eric Stoltz and Lea Thompson, the first being The Wild Life (1984), and the second being Back to the Future (1985), where both Stoltz and Thompson had been cast, but just five weeks into filming Back to the Future, Stoltz was let go from the production and replaced with Michael J. Fox, while Thompson stayed on.[11][12] This film was shot in Los Angeles in the summer of 1986. Locations include San Pedro High School, Hancock Park, and the Hollywood Bowl.[6]

Reception

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On Rotten Tomatoes the film has an approval rating of 76% based on 45 reviews, with the site's consensus: "Some Kind of Wonderful is above-average '80s teen fare for people who need as much John Hughes in their lives as possible."[13] On Metacritic the film has a score of 55 out of 100 based on reviews from 16 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[14] Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film a grade A− on a scale of A to F.[15]

Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times praised the film, giving it 3 stars out of four and wrote how he admired its clever re-examination of a common film trope: the film "is not about whether the hero will get the girl. It is about whether the hero should get the girl, and when was the last time you saw a movie that even knew that could be the question?"[16] Janet Maslin of The New York Times stated that Some Kind of Wonderful is the "much-improved, recycled version of the Pretty in Pink story".[17] Richard Schickel of Time criticized the film for being unrealistic.[18] Masterson's look and performance were singled out for praise by several critics.[16][17][19][20] The film grossed $18.5 million at the box office.[1]

Accolades

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Soundtrack

[edit]
Some Kind of Wonderful: Music from the Motion Picture Soundtrack
Soundtrack album by
various artists
ReleasedFebruary 27, 1987
GenresRock, new wave
Length36:20
LabelMCA
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusicStarStarStarStar[22]
  1. "Do Anything" – Pete Shelley
  2. "Brilliant Mind" – Furniture
  3. "Cry Like This" – Blue Room
  4. "I Go Crazy" – Flesh for Lulu
  5. "She Loves Me" – Stephen Duffy
  6. "The Hardest Walk" – The Jesus and Mary Chain
  7. "The Shyest Time" – The Apartments
  8. "Miss Amanda Jones" – The March Violets
  9. "Can't Help Falling in Love" – Lick the Tins
  10. "Turn to the Sky" – The March Violets

Charts

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Chart (1987) Peak
position
Australia (Kent Music Report)[23] 96

References

[edit]
  1. 1 2 "Some Kind of Wonderful". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved September 13, 2022.
  2. ↑ "Trivia". Some Kind of Wonderful. Archived from the original on October 8, 2008.
  3. ↑ Honeycutt, Kirk (February 15, 2015). John Hughes: A Life In Film: The Genius Behind The Breakfast Club, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, and Home Alone. Race Point Publishing. p. 126. ISBN 9781627886239 – via Google Books.
  4. ↑ Pirnia, Garin (January 17, 2016). "12 Wonderful Facts About Some Kind of Wonderful". mentalfloss.com.
  5. ↑ Meroney, John (August 19, 2010). "Molly Ringwald's Revealing Interview on John Hughes, Not Being Lindsay Lohan, and More". The Atlantic. Archived from the original on May 3, 2022. Retrieved January 22, 2019.
  6. 1 2 Cowan, Jared (February 22, 2017). "Some Kind of Wonderful 30 Years Later". LA Weekly. Archived from the original on February 26, 2017.
  7. ↑ Gora, Susannah (2010). You Couldn't Ignore Me If You Tried: The Brat Pack, John Hughes, and their impact on a Generation. New York: Three Rivers Press. p. 209. ISBN 978-0-307-71660-6 – via Internet Archive.
  8. ↑ Cieply, Michael (March 11, 1988). "A Fired Woman Film Director—New Questions, Issue Continues". Los Angeles Times.
  9. ↑ Lenker, Maureen Lee (February 11, 2019). "An oral history of John Hughes' 'Some Kind of Wonderful'". Entertainment Weekly. Archived from the original on October 22, 2025. Retrieved August 20, 2026.
  10. ↑ Harris, Will (February 21, 2012). "Random Roles: Lea Thompson". The A.V. Club. Retrieved October 19, 2012.
  11. ↑ Reynolds, Simon (June 29, 2015). "Why original Marty McFly Eric Stoltz was fired from Back to the Future". Digital Spy. Retrieved June 18, 2018.
  12. ↑ Woerner, Meredith (October 12, 2010), "Never-before-seen footage of Eric Stoltz as Marty McFly in Back To The Future", IO9, archived from the original on September 27, 2012, retrieved October 10, 2011
  13. ↑ "Some Kind of Wonderful (1987)". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved July 27, 2022.
  14. ↑ "Some Kind of Wonderful". Metacritic.
  15. ↑ "Cinemascore". Archived from the original on December 20, 2018.
  16. 1 2 Ebert, Roger (February 27, 1987). "Review: Some Kind of Wonderful". Chicago Sun-Times. Retrieved March 22, 2009 – via RogerEbert.com.
  17. 1 2 Maslin, Janet (February 27, 1987). "Film: 'Some Kind of Wonderful'". The New York Times. p. C17. Retrieved March 22, 2009.
  18. ↑ Schickel, Richard (March 9, 1987). "Cinema: Teen Turmoil Some Kind Of Wonderful". Time. Archived from the original on November 9, 2007. Retrieved March 22, 2009.
  19. ↑ "Some Kind of Wonderful". Variety. January 1, 1987. Retrieved March 22, 2009.
  20. ↑ Harrington, Richard (February 28, 1987). "Some Kind of Wonderful". The Washington Post. Retrieved March 22, 2009.
  21. ↑ "9th Annual Youth in Film Awards". YoungArtistAwards.org. Archived from the original on March 3, 2016. Retrieved August 20, 2026.
  22. ↑ Sutton, Michael. "Review: Some Kind of Wonderful – Original Soundtrack". AllMusic. Retrieved January 30, 2013.
  23. ↑ Kent, David (1993). Australian Chart Book 1970–1992 (illustrated ed.). St Ives, N.S.W.: Australian Chart Book. p. 284. ISBN 0-646-11917-6.
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