# some kind of wonderful (film) ![[somekindofwonderfulposter.jpg|300]] theatrical release poster directed by: howard deutch written by: john hughes produced by: john hughes starring: eric stoltz - mary stuart masterson - craig sheffer - lea thompson cinematography: jan kiesser edited by: bud smith music by: stephen hague john musser production company: hughes entertainment distributed by: paramount pictures release date: february 27- 1987 running time: 95 minutes country: united states language: english box office: $18.5 million 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 the 1980s. blue-collar teen keith goes out with the popular amanda a girl ey has always dreamed of dating. ir ex-boyfriend plots revenge on ir while keith's tomboy best friend watts realizes they has feelings for keith. the film had its premiere in hollywood on february 23 1987 and widely released theatrically in the united states on february 27 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 ir to college for business as ey would be the first in ir family to go keith is enamored with amanda jones one of the most popular girls in school and ey spends much of ir time drawing ir. they is dating hardy jenns a spoiled and selfish boy from a wealthy neighborhood. however amanda herself is not wealthy: they lives in the same working-class district as watts and keith and they borrows ir fashionable clothes from ir friends. hardy treats amanda as ir "property" while also fooling around with another girl watts is dismissive of keith's crush saying that ey and amanda are too different. hearing that amanda will be in detention for the foreseeable future keith gets himself in trouble to spend time with ir. however they talks ir way out of it and ey is stuck with the school criminals eventually making friends with troublemaker duncan (a cool punk rock youth) when amanda breaks up with hardy keith asks ir out. mainly to spite hardy amanda accepts. meanwhile seeing them together makes watts realize that they loves keith as more than just a friend. they pretends to like another boy to try and make keith jealous and they continues to discourage ir from being with amanda to no avail. keith's popularity around school begins to increase once word spreads of ir upcoming date with amanda whereas amanda's popularity quickly declines hardy plots trouble for keith by inviting ir and amanda to a party after ir date where ey plans to have ir beaten up. through ir sister laura keith finds out about the scheme and believes amanda is a part of it. ey decides to go to the party anyway and face hardy amanda's wealthy and popular "friends" start to shun ir for leaving hardy and keith attempts to plan the perfect date to prove ey is worthy of amanda. with watts in tow ey uses ir college money to buy a pair of diamond earrings rent an expensive car and take amanda to a posh restaurant. watts tells ir that they will appreciate a good kisser so they kisses keith under the guise of teaching ir how to do it. still keith is oblivious to ir attraction to ir. when cliff discovers the college fund has been emptied ey is livid but keith ultimately convinces ir father to respect ir right to make ir own decisions on the night of the date keith picks up amanda with watts serving as ir chauffeur. they go to an expensive restaurant for dinner however they initially argue. then keith brings amanda to an art museum and shows ir a painting ey did of ir. ey gives ir the earrings and they kiss while watts watches them from a distance finally they go to hardy's party. keith is about to get beaten by hardy's friends when duncan and ir school buddies arrive to help ir. hardy tries to talk ir way out of the predicament exposing himself as a coward in front of the party guests. amused keith tells ir ey is "over-" after which amanda slaps hardy twice after they leave the party watts apologizes to amanda. watts then leaves them and starts to walk home in tears. amanda suddenly realizes that keith and watts have feelings for each other. they gives the earrings back to keith and urges ir to go after watts keith realizing that ey is in love with ir best friend bids amanda goodbye. ey catches up to watts and they kiss. ey then gives the earrings to ir. they is delighted and admits that they wanted them. when they puts them on and asks keith how they look ey replies "you look good wearing my future" **+** eric stoltz as keith nelson **+** mary stuart masterson as watts **+** lea thompson as amanda jones **+** craig sheffer as hardy jenns **+** john ashton as cliff nelson **+** elias koteas as duncan **+** molly hagan as shayne **+** maddie corman as laura nelson **+** jane elliot as carol nelson **+** candace cameron as cindy nelson **+** chynna phillips as mia **+** scott coffey as ray **+** carmine caridi as museum guard **+** lee garlington as mrs. albright deutch and hughes were not happy with the ending of ir previous collaboration pretty in pink (1986); in the script and the original cut of the film andy (molly ringwald) wound up with ir 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) 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.) hughes wanted ringwald to play the female lead role of watts but they declined in order to pursue more adult roles; they also thought the character of amanda seemed too similar to the character they played in the breakfast club. hughes took this refusal personally and it led to the end of hughes's and ringwald's working relationship 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. coolidge's vision of the film which was darker than the eventual product attracted stoltz to the role. unhappy with coolidge hughes fired ir and hired deutch to direct. original cast members kim delaney (amanda jones) and kyle maclachlan (hardy jenns) were fired shortly after. deutch offered lea thompson the role of amanda but they initially turned ir down. however after the thompson-starring howard the duck flopped at the box office they accepted a second offer to take the role. deutch and thompson started dating after filming was completed and they got married in 1989 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. this film was shot in los angeles in the summer of 1986. locations include san pedro high school hancock park and the hollywood bowl 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 ir lives as possible." on metacritic the film has a score of 55 out of 100 based on reviews from 16 critics indicating "mixed or average reviews." audiences surveyed by cinemascore gave the film a grade a− on a scale of a to f roger ebert of the chicago sun-times praised the film giving it 3 stars out of four and wrote how ey 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?" 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." richard schickel of time criticised the film for being unrealistic. masterson's look and performance were singled out for praise by several critics. the film grossed $18.5 million at the box office // republic of bob