The Way We Were

Rating: 8/10 (22 October 2007)

There are certain works of literature, cinema, and even television that have to be viewed at a certain crucial point to truly engage on the level they were intended. My first viewing of "The Breakfast Club" came when I was a high-school senior (at the insistence of my then-girlfriend), and while I didn't see the film as an accurate reflection of any experiences I had had, I certainly liked it. I viewed the film several months later as part of a psychology class I was taking. And now, with high school 8 years in the past, "The Breakfast Club" plays better than ever. While this quintessential John Hughes snapshot of '80s teens can veer into corny, outdated lingo and other dubious asides (the 'whistling' interlude), the overall effect is no less potent or genuinely intended. The premise is simple: 5 seemingly disparate teens, identifiable by one distinguishing trait (Athlete, Criminal, Princess, Brain, Basket Case), are stuck in an 8-hour Saturday detention session, during which they reveal themselves as uniquely layered individuals. The performances are the stuff of legend--each actor brings a vulnerable edge to their deceptively clichÃ© titles (and, of course, part of the film's charm is seeing which characters we can most closely relate to). Hughes is as good at staging goofy comic moments (such as a hallway chase set to synthesizer percussion) as he is at the more quietly emotional and raw scenes. The adult characters (represented primarily by Paul Gleason's bitter principal) are somewhat problematic, coming across as short-fused boogeymen...yet still, this seems to be part of Hughes' (mostly accurate) teenage perception, where the notion of 'adult' remains an elusive, mysterious concept. "The Breakfast Club" is a mix of comedy, drama, and nostalgia that is by turns hilarious, affecting, and wrought with the kind of naive complexity that makes youth at once joyful and painful.