Some Kind of Wonderful One of John Hughes' Best

Widely considered the least-known of legendary director John Hughes' 1980s high-school movies, Some Kind of Wonderful is anchored by the three-way of strong characters played by Eric Stoltz, Mary Stuart Masterson, and Lea Thompson.

It is essentially the same story as Hughes' more-often-praised Pretty in Pink. But I like this one better, perhaps mostly because of Stoltz (one of my very favorite actors) and Masterson, who plays a tomboy hoping to win Stoltz over from popular-girl Thompson.

Although Thompson is the weakest link in this love triangle, it's probably a good thing Molly Ringwald didn't get the part. She was supposed to get it, but Hughes went with Thompson. It would have been too indistinguishable from Pretty in Pink with Ringwald, although it probably would have been more popular.

Hughes actually wrote the plot with Stoltz in mind for lead character Keith. And Hughes is not subtle with his rock 'n roll ways: the three lead characters have Rolling Stones' references in their names. Keith for Stoltz, Watts (the Stones' drummer) for Masterson, and Amanda Jones (the name of one of their songs) for Thompson.

**** out of ***** stars