Dir. John Hughes, US, 1986, 102 mins
Cast: Matthew Broderick, Mia Sara, Alan Ruck, Jeffrey Jones, Jennifer Grey
Ferris Bueller remains the sharpest and least sickly of Hughes’ brat-pack collective. Where The Breakfast Club relied on a large variety of personalities and Sixteen Candles on pure novelty, Ferris bucked the trend and went straight for the comic jugular. Deciding to take the day off from High School Ferris (Broderick) enlists the reluctant help of best friend Cameron (Ruck) and girlfriend Sloane (Sara) as they embark on a hectic day of misadventure in a stolen red Ferrari.
Hughes, responsible for writing and directing duties, is pitch perfect here with a swathe of cutting dialogue and a slew of performances just the right side of sentimental. The outfits are wonderfully terrible and the soundtrack achingly kitsch with Yello’s ‘Oh Yeah’ and Sigue Sigue Sputnick ‘Love Missile F1-11’ amidst indie classics such as The Smiths aptly titled ‘Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want’. Where most 80’s films suffer from a saturation of day-glow threads and bold, brash gutter punches of style, Ferris is clean and linear in its narrative allowing Broderick to wink and nudge to his heart’s delight.
Taking over $70,000,000 on its release in America Ferris has managed to balance independent cult status with soaring mainstream popularity. Responsible for the risible The Night Ferris Bueller Died (1999) and the woeful Ferris Bueller TV series (1990) Hughes’ teen odyssey is a classic of the teen genre. Slaloming around the usual clichés of the genre pioneered by Hughes, Reiner, and Bogdanovich, Ferris survives on sheer unadulterated charm and nerve. Well beyond his teens when accepting the role of 17 year old Ferris, Broderick struts and swings as he talks to the camera and breaks down the conventional two dimensional parameters of cinema. Sporting a dashing pair of shades and a painfully 80’s jacket Ferris twists the audience around his charm before spinning you out on his spiky wit.
An excellent supporting cast is bolstered by Alan Ruck and Jeffrey Jones. Ruck, 30 years old in 1986, gives as good as Ferris gets as loveable misfit Cameron. Spoilt by riches and rendered catatonically anxious by an unseen father, Cameron is the darker side to Ferris’ bold beam of light. Twisted with a strange nihilism Ruck is the film’s heart and soul. Jones as the pedantic truant officer Rooney is a perfect foil to the youthful vigour on display. Utilised by Hughes as the fall-guy for Ferris’ perennial prankster Jones is everything you could ask for in a pantomime villain: angry, mean and bumbling. The only let down in an otherwise faultless cast is the faceless Mia Sara as Ferris’ dullard girlfriend Sloane.
The film reaches its peak with dizzying tenacity as Ferris and friends visit the top of the Sears Tower and lean forward pressing their foreheads against the glass looking down at the tiny specks of life below. Waxing lyrical on the subtleties of life, Ferris, Sloane and Cameron echo many a wistful sentiment uttered by us all before responsibility and maturity hit home. Hughes the teen philosopher pioneers an oddly sweet motif where Ferris wants to help Cameron gain self-respect in the face of his father's materialism. In the current climate of the ‘tits-and-ass’ teen brigade Ferris Bueller makes a welcome indulgence. Littered with delicate humour and warm poise Hughes has crafted a deep-seated tale of whimsy that defies its teen origins. Let it in and you’ll never want to leave.
Craig Driver
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