The lovelorn Watts goes to see her wrong-side-of-the-tracks, grease monkey BFF Keith at his garage. He's got a date with that frisky tamale Amanda Jones. Watts, a drum-playing, sullen blonde Tomboy in a rough pair of knee-length cutoff jeans, breasts seemingly bandied beneath a T'shirt, provokes him:
What, she asks Keith, are you going to do if Amanda Jones wants you to kiss her?
He's flummoxed. Like, obviously he's not thought this through. This date could easily go horizontal. Everyone knows Amanda Jones is no prude. Watts offers to give him a test run. This is hardly bell-ringing in front of a grocery store. She's got it pretty bad for the artist in a work-shirt.
"Pretend I'm a girl," Watts says. She's propped up, sitting. They are at eye level. "Pretend I'm her. Amanda. I know it's a stretch ... but try it." She slips into a girlie falsetto, leans back, bats her eyes, throws back a shoulder playfully.
Cue up the Stephen Duffy song "She Loves Me."
After some coaxing, Keith leans in for the wallop. Annnnnd ... They kiss. The camera pans down to his dirty hands on her denim thighs, and he clenches them into claws. Passion claws, if you will. This is too much for poor Watts.
She pushes him away. She's red. Flustered. She tells "You're cool" and gets up to leave. He says, "You're blushing!" Incredulous. She gives him a look. "No, you're ... pretty," he stammers.
Then she just gets mad.
Of all the things John Hughes touched, it's this scene from "Some Kind of Wonderful" that is my favorite of all time. In high school, I knew a thing or two about unrequited love. In fact, for many years I found it preferable to the real thing. If I've seen this film 300 times, I've watched this scene 900 times. It's still one of the greatest moments in film. Mary Stuart Masterson ... so perfectly cool, but with such familiar angst.
So that's my contribution to the John Hughes conversation.
3 comments:
that was a great scene. Some Kind of Wonderful was one of his best.
it is sad that we had John Hughes to entertain us, and pre-teens today only have Judd Apatow. ew.
the fact that mary stuart masterson would have preferred leah thompson giving her that kiss to eric stolz makes it even hotter. --quacks
watched "pretty in pink" tonight because I couldn't find "some kind of wonderful" at target. i hate myself for still having a thing for james spader.
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