Re-watching Some Kind of Wonderful

Some Kind of Wonderful is a teenage romantic movie with Mary Stewart Masterson, Eric Stolz, and Lea Thompson. It is more a drama than a comedy but there are some funny moments. Stolz plays Keith, a student wants to be an artist. His best friend is tomboy Watts (Masterson). Keith wants to date Amanda, a pretty girl (Thompson) who hangs out with the rich kids in his school.

Keith is dealing with his father, who means well and wants his son to go to business school. Keith doesn’t want that but he is having trouble explaining this to his dad. The dad is not a bad guy though. (In a different film, the dad would be a bad guy.)

Amanda starts the movie with a boyfriend but he is not a good guy. (The movie makes this clear really early.) Watts is in love with Keith but he doesn’t know it.

This film is compared to Pretty in Pink, also written by John Hughes, but there are a few differences.
I would not watch them back to back. Pretty in Pink is more the female lead’s story and this film is the male lead’s story.

The lead performances are all good. Stolz was famously replaced by Michael J Fox in Back to the Future because the producers and director felt he was not right for it. (He filmed for five weeks before he was replaced.) I think he was right for this movie, and he is likeable/relatable as Keith.

Thompson is good too. I think we start to get to know her character better after the first 30 minutes. Masterson is good as Watts and she might have the hardest role. It has to be fairly obvious to the audience that she has feelings for Keith but still believable that he has not figured it out.

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