Pretty in Pink: A Lesson in Unrequited Love

Blane, Andie, and Duckie in Pretty in Pink (1986)

Written for the Unhappy Valentine's Blogathon hosted by PEPs.

So many times, unrequited love happens because one member of a long-standing friendship falls in love with the other member.

Such is the case with Pretty in Pink.

A cinematic stunner written by John Hughes, Pretty in Pink puts 1980s teen romance on display with one of the most used and abused tropes in the history of fiction, that of the love triangle.

Andie (Molly Ringwald) and Duckie (Jon Cryer) have been friends since before forever. Best friends, even. And somewhere along the way, Duckie fell in love with her.

Unfortunately for him, Andie has been in love with pretty-boy Blane (Andrew McCarthy) for just about as long as Duckie has been in love with her. 

What a mess!

And of course, Andie from the lower-income family ends up with rich boy Blane instead of best friend Duckie because that's just the way the world works.

Duckie and Andie going to prom (that is admittedly a hideous dress)

Duckie is a goofball and no mistake. But he's a sweetie. He comes from a similar low-income background to Andie and they've been like twins since forever. His yearning for her makes my heart break every time because the audience can see how dearly he loves her, and we can also see how clueless she is and that it's just never going to work.

Ms. Ringwald much later actually outed Duckie as gay, and all I can say to that is that if it's news to the author of the screenplay and the actor playing Duckie, then you're barking up the wrong tree, girl. Apparently, the character is too flamboyant? More than likely his flamboyance is due to his personality type and not his sexuality. I know my fashion and my sister's fashion are both due to our personality types so, to me, that makes the most sense. I suspect Ms. Ringwald just didn't like Jon Cryer, so she undermined the characters' relationship. Shame on her if it's true.

I guess the biggest question is should Andie and Duckie have ended up together? They have more in common, by far. Duckie has more personality in his pinkie finger than Blane has in his entire body, so there's that. And he's just one of those guys that makes you feel warm and comfortable like you've wrapped yourself in a favorite quilt. so, yes, it's a shame that Duckie and Andie were fated to never get off the ground. It's not fair, but I put the blame more on Ms. Ringwald's stubbornness than on Jon Cryer's vibrancy. If she'd tried just a little bit harder to perform with some chemistry, then maybe Duckie and Andie would have had the ending they deserved.

Ultimately, Duckie gets the short end of the stick against the will of John Hughes himself who was bullied by the studio into changing the end of his story.

Duckie and Andie

Pretty in Pink is not one of my favorites of John Hughes' films because Andie and Duckie were sidelined in favor of the rich boy. Not that I'm against falling in love with a rich boy, but it's the same issue I had in the tv program, Veronica Mars. Veronica and Duncan are boring. There are no sparks whatsoever and yet, fans endured waaaaaay too many episodes of them together. It's the same here. Andie and Blane are boring, and on top of that, he's a bit of a bully which is a whole other problem, end of story.

Duckie deserves kudos, though. Apart from John Bender in The Breakfast Club, Duckie is my favorite of Hughes' male characters. He's proof to me that the boy next door can be brilliant. I know, that's another old trope, but sometimes it's one worth using.