I've been meaning to check out Ferris Bueller's Day Off since I saw the musical scene in Easy A but, for a reason or another — the latest being the idiotic idea to watch Step Brothers — I kept putting it off.
The film follows a day in the life of Ferris Bueller (Matthew Broderick), a popular high school student who gets away with everything. On this particular day, he fakes sick to take a day off from school and enjoy Chicago with his best friend, Cameron (Alan Ruck), and his girlfriend, Sloane (Mia Sara), while trying to outwit Ed Rooney (Jeffrey Jones), the suspicious school principal who wants to prove Ferris is not sick, and his sister, Jeanie (Jennifer Grey), who is sick of her brother getting away with his tricks all the time.
The plot is incredibly simple and predictable and yet it's still quite entertaining and fun to follow Ferris and his friends as they do their tricks to get/do what they want. Unfortunately, the subplots don't work at all. The one involving the school principal doesn't really belong to the film as it's nothing but lazy and unfunny slapstick and it's also quite annoying; the one involving Ferris's sister isn't particularly compelling.
The characters aren't that great either as they lack depth, proper development and likeability, starting from Ferris Bueller who is probably one of the most obnoxious (leading) characters I've seen on screen to Ferris's bland, bull girlfriend, Sloane. The only likeable and interesting character is Cameron as he struggles with standing up to his father but unfortunately, he's treated poorly.
John Hughes's poor screenplay, however, is not the aspect of Ferris Bueller's Day Off that bothered me the most, the acting is, or rather the cast. I guess Matthew Broderick is one of those actors you either like or hate, because so many people love him but I just can't with him. Anyways, his performance is average, and so are the others.
Hughes's direction is not that great either, the biggest issues being his decision of having Ferris speaking directly to the camera, and therefore to the audience, which feels quite uncomfortable and disrupts the flow of the film.
Thankfully, the slapstick in the principal subplot isn't the only source of humour in the film. Although it's not laughing-out-loud funny, there's still plenty of humour in the film and overall it works well.
The characters aren't that great either as they lack depth, proper development and likeability, starting from Ferris Bueller who is probably one of the most obnoxious (leading) characters I've seen on screen to Ferris's bland, bull girlfriend, Sloane. The only likeable and interesting character is Cameron as he struggles with standing up to his father but unfortunately, he's treated poorly.
John Hughes's poor screenplay, however, is not the aspect of Ferris Bueller's Day Off that bothered me the most, the acting is, or rather the cast. I guess Matthew Broderick is one of those actors you either like or hate, because so many people love him but I just can't with him. Anyways, his performance is average, and so are the others.
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| Paramount Pictures |
Thankfully, the slapstick in the principal subplot isn't the only source of humour in the film. Although it's not laughing-out-loud funny, there's still plenty of humour in the film and overall it works well.
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