Sixteen Candles




Should be an interesting honeymoon.

Samantha (Molly Ringwald) has just turned sixteen. But instead of having the best birthday ever, everyone forgets it and she has a terrible day. She likes Jake Ryan (Michael Schoeffling) at her school, but he is older and more popular. Little does she know that he has eyes for her too and is getting tired of his beautiful but shallow girlfriend. The movie follows the two and Ted, AKA the Geek (Anthony Michael Hall), during a stereotypical 80's dance, party and a disaster of a wedding brought to you straight from John Hughes.

Being the first movie that Hughes directed, you can expect things to be a bit uneven. Certainly not his funniest outing, it still manages to be pretty amusing. At times crude and corny (using sound effects and musical themes to accompany characters), these work sometimes better than others. At times you feel they're going too far to get a laugh. Come on, how much can you laugh at a girl in a neck brace?

The best thing about Sixteen Candles isn't the humor. If there was ever a guy that understood teens, at least in the 80's, it was Mr. Hughes. He manages to play on his characters, almost perfectly exposing their desires and fears. Everyone can relate to at least one of the characters in the movie, and that is why this movie remains so appealing.

Even if the characters are understandable, unnecessary measures are taken to insure that we either like or don't like them. The ones we aren't supposed to like are so snotty that their complete one eighty at the end is more than somewhat unbelievable. But this isn't supposed to be reality. This is a bit of reality mixed with a fairy tale. Nearly everyone, or at least those who deserve it, get a happy ending.

What can I say? Ringwald and Hall in a movie like this? Everyone else does all right. Some even manage to have a bit of fun with it, including Gedde Watanabe as the odd foreign exchange student. Also look for John and Joan Cusack.

Sixteen Candles remains a charming story of adolescence that happens to be pretty funny as well.



-The Gnome