Summary
Ronald wants to be popular. He’s also in love with Cindy. He gets his chance to have both when she needs help. She took her mother’s dress without permission and a friend of hers spilled wine on it. She didn’t have the money to buy a new dress and that’s when Ronald came in. He saved $1500 because he was mowing his neighbors’ lawns over the summer. He was going to buy a $1000 to go out with him to make him popular. She resisted at first, but she gave in. She agrees to date him for a month. Once she started dating him, her friends accepted him. While he was dating Cindy, he ignored his friends. After he broke up with Cindy, he became big man on campus. He dated different girls and he was popular. He enjoyed the high life for four months until it was over. He ends up a bigger outcast than he was before he paid her to date him. In the end, Ronald learned that money can’t buy you everything you want.
What The Movie Did Right
Story
I enjoyed the movie. It was funny. I thought the story was interesting for a teen movie. The movie is not too long. It feels shorter than it’s 94 minutes. I didn’t find too many dull moments in the movie.
Chemistry
The cast had pretty good chemistry as a whole. Ronald and Cindy made a nice couple. The writers did a good job pairing these two. They looked better with each other than she did with the actor who played her boyfriend Bobby. She was in one scene with him and it wasn’t the same as it was watching her with Ronald. The same thing happened when Ronald was with other girls. It wasn’t the same as when he was with Cindy.
Acting
I think that Patrick Dempsey and Amanda Peterson did pretty good jobs in their roles. The others did decent jobs with what they were given. The rest of the cast wasn’t in the movie as much as Patrick and Amanda so I am basing my opinion on what they were given. If you are a Seth Green fan, look out for him in a small role as Ronald’s little brother Chucky.
The writers redeemed Ronald
Once he’s popular, he becomes a real jerk. He starts ignoring his friends and Cindy. One of the worst things he does is to his friend Kenneth. He threw dog mess on his house. Luckily for Ronald he let him get away with what he did instead of turning him into the police. At John’s (one of the jocks) party, Cindy exposes his plan. She swore to keep it a secret, but after Bobby dumped her, she exposed him. After she exposed him, the whole school turned against him. He wanted to make things right with Kenneth and Cindy. When Ronald saw Quintan (another jock) picking on Kenneth, he defended him. He gave a speech about popular kids versus nerds needing to be on the same side. After that, everyone loved him again. I liked how he regretted what he did and tried to make it right. It’s too bad it took him having to get exposed to do it, but he still redeemed himself.
Cindy’s feelings for Ronald
The writers let us know how Ronald felt about Cindy early on in the movie so it was good to see her have feelings for him once they got to know each other. When the movie started, she was so into herself that she didn’t see Ronald. She didn’t even get his name right. She kept calling him Donald instead of Ronald. Once they got closer, she realized that he wasn’t as bad as she thought. She became more likeable when she started getting closer to Ronald.
The ending
*Spoiler Warning* The ending is predictable, but I’m glad they got together. They seemed to really like each other until things got bad. As I mentioned earlier, they made a nice couple so I wanted to see them get together at the end.
Where The Movie Went Wrong
Casting
Even though Patrick Dempsey did a good job in his role, he was badly casted for it. He did not look like the stereotypical nerd. When Cindy transformed him, all she had to do was take off his glasses, put mousse in his hair, and change his clothes. It would have been more of a miracle transformation if she had to change Kenneth. He actually looked like a nerd as opposed to Patrick Dempsey.
Clichés
This movie has teen movie clichés. The popular kids are jerks to people. The popular kids only hung around each other. The most popular girl in school had two followers who are just as evil as she is. There are obligatory parties in the movie too. There was also the obligatory dance. The parents are practically non-existent. The nerd didn’t need much of a transformation in order to be considered hot.
Cindy busts Ronald
The writers butchered Cindy’s character when she exposed Ronald. I didn’t like the way she went about exposing their deal. I know she was upset about getting dumped, but she promised not to say anything. Besides, she didn’t care about Bobby anymore so why did she care if he dumped her? I felt really bad for Ronald when she did that to him. I was probably supposed to feel sorry for Cindy, but I didn’t.
Questions
Why would Ronald pay $1000 to be friends with the popular kids? They would not have been worth the money in my opinion. He had friends so he didn’t need to be friends with them. They were nasty and shallow unless they liked you.
What were the odds that the store that Cindy went to would have had the same dress that Cindy stole from her mother? It was also conveniently in the right size and color.
Why didn’t Cindy tell Ronald how she felt about him during the month they were getting to know each other? That would have solved the problem and it would have ended the movie sooner.
Why was Cindy afraid to admit she was a poet? Since she was the most popular girl in school, her friends might have thought it was cool to write poems.
Why didn’t Cindy ever apologize to Ronald for exposing him at John’s party? He kept her secret, but she didn’t keep his. I’m surprised that he never asked her why she exposed him.
