BY MALACHY AYALA
Ferris Bueller provides the dream high school day off:
We all know the feeling: wanting to miss class simply because we woke up without the motivation to go. This is how Ferris Bueller, a popular student at a suburban high school, feels when he wakes up one school morning. Caution: spoilers ahead.
As most would, he prefers to spend the day driving around with his best friend, Cameron, and his girlfriend, Sloane, in Cameron’s father’s red 1961 Ferrari 250 GT. However, he faces two challenges. The first being that he has to get his friend Cameron out of bed since he has no motivation to do it himself, and then he has to get his girlfriend out of school.
In general, it is easy for a director to mess up a high school movie because most don’t know what life as a teenager is actually like. Ferris Bueller is one of the exceptions. John Hughes, the director, hits all the right comedic notes which are seen from the very start. The interactions Bueller has with his parents to convince them his sick have an absolute accuracy we all know well, because we’ve probably tried it.
From there, he goes on to make his Principal, Ed Rooney, look much harsher and meaner than in reality. Their mutual hate adds a hysterical relationship as we watch Ferris outsmart Principal Rooney time after time– until their last meeting where Rooney almost foils the plan.
Once he gets Sloane out of school, with help from Cameron who called the Principal as her father, Ferris plans a trip to Chicago which for the most part works out. When they first arrive, Ferris and his friends drop off the Ferrari. Feeling uneasy at first about leaving his father’s prized vehicle, Cameron still follows Bueller’s lead and leaves it.
What follows is a fun-filled trip into the city for one last hoorah during senior year. Highlighted by a trip to the Art Institute of Chicago, Sears Tower, Wrigley Field for a Cubs game and trip through the Von Steuben parade, Bueller makes this trip well worth it for his friends.
Although the trip went perfectly, Ferris still almost runs into his father while driving around and when he’s returning home, and he almost gets hit by a car with his mother in it. The fear of nearly getting caught by parents is demonstrated perfectly by Matthew Broderick, the actor portraying Ferris Bueller. The wide eyes, fast hiding and running are all reactions where Broderick portrays the exact emotion we feel when almost getting caught by parents, which adds to the very satisfying and funny ending when Bueller makes it home.
Overall, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off is a funny, innocent, movie unlike one I’ve seen in a long time, and contains warm-hearted comedy that we can all somewhat relate to. John Hughes, the philosopher of adolescence, once again adds to his enormous collection of well-done high school comedies.
In the past, he’s had similar successful films including Pretty in Pink and Sixteen Candles. By the end of the film, I found myself cheering for Bueller to make it home before getting caught by anyone. While most of the problems in the movie have simple solutions, the film’s core aspects are in the right place, and Ferris Bueller is humorous, accurate and likable.