Ferris Bueller's Day Off

Comedy

Matthew Broderick	Ferris Bueller
Jennifer Grey	Jeanie Bueller
Jeffrey Jones	Ed Rooney
Edie McClurg	Grace
Cindy Pickett	Katie Bueller
Alan Ruck	Cameron Frye
Mia Sara	Sloane Peterson
Charlie Sheen	Boy in Police Station
Ben Stein	Economics Teacher
Lyman Ward	Tom Bueller
Lisa Bellard
Virginia Capers
Del Close
Scott Coffey

Director	John Hughes
Producer	John Hughes; Tom Jacobson
Writer	John Hughes
Cinematography	Tak Fujimoto
Musician	Ira Newborn; Arthur Baker; Yello; Phil Medley; John Robie; Bert Russell

High school student Ferris Bueller (Matthew Broderick) decides to skip school one day, and cons his parents Tom (Lyman Ward) and Katie (Cindy Pickett) into thinking he's sick, though sister Jeanie (Jennifer Grey) knows better. Ferris convinces his (actually sick) friend Cameron (Alan Ruck) to join him, and he gets his girlfriend Sloane Peterson (Mia Sara) out of school with a call to the school from "her father", claiming that her grandmother had died. Principal Ed Rooney (Jeffrey Jones) suspects that "Mr. Peterson" is Ferris and insults him, but is highly embarassed when Ferris calls on another line asking for his homework to be picked up. "Mr. Peterson" was actually Cameron. The three students take Cameron's dad's Ferrari out on the town, visiting an expensive restaurant (where Ferris narrowly avoids being seen by his father), taking in a ball game, riding a float in a parade, and more. Jeanie, driving her parents home, spots Ferris at the end of the day, and they race home (Ferris on foot) so Jeanie can prove to their parents that he was faking.

Like a soda pop left open all night, Bueller seems to have lost its effervescence over time. Sure, Matthew Broderick is still appealing as the perennial truant, Ferris, who fakes his parents out and takes one memorable day off from school. Jeffrey Jones is nasty and scheming as the principal who's out to catch him. Jennifer Grey is winning as Ferris's sister (who ends up making out in the police station with a prophetic vision of Charlie Sheen). But there's a definite sense that this film was of a particular time frame: the '80s. It's still fun, though. There's Ferris singing "Twist and Shout" during a Chicago parade, and a lovely sequence in the Art Institute. But don't get it and expect your kids to love it the way you did. Like it or not, it's yours alone. --Keith Simanton