MOVIE REVIEW: Ferris Bueller’s Day off: an immortal classic

Michael Belliveau, Staff Writer

If there is one thing to be learned here, it is that a classic never dies. This coming-to-age masterpiece is about a boy who decides to take a day off from school, with his two best friends. Like everyone else, I could not agree more with the positive feedback from this box-office hit.

One sunny day in a suburban Chicago household, we are introduced to a seemingly sick Ferris Bueller (Matthew Broderick), who says that he can’t even walk. However, it only takes a few seconds to realize that he is actually fabricating the whole story. His parents buy his phony act and let him stay home, much to the dismay of his resentful sister Jeanie (Jennifer Grey), who in fact knows that he is lying.

As soon as his parents and sister leave, Ferris then comes out bed, completely healthy, and talks directly to the camera (as he does even throughout the movie) about tips on how a teenager of his ‘state of mind’ make yourself appear even more sick to get a much needed day off from school. Of course this isn’t why most people, including myself, love this movie.

We are soon introduced to his best friends, Cameron Frye (Alan Ruck) who is see, is a sad, miserable shell of once he was, lying in bed trying to sleep. And on the other opposite spectrum we are introduced to Sloane Peterson (Mia Sara), Ferris’ bubbly girlfriend. We find out that she is also on the gag, and with Ferris’ help, she manages to get out of school as well. And after some coaxing of Cameron, they finally go out to Chicago diving right into the city’s beautiful architecture, landscape, and spirit. They even take out Mr. Frye’s prized  Ferrari 250 GT California Spyder, despite Cameron’s fight, explaining how his father loves his car more than his family.

The Dean of Students at Ferris’ high school, Ed Rooney (Jeffrey Jones), unlike everyone else, believes Ferris is a delinquent and also believes that he is skipping school just to skip school and not because he is sick. Hence the trio tries to have a glorious day in the beautiful city of Chicago with a conniving school body-figure determined to expose Ferris for the lying rapscallion he really is.

Ferris Bueller’s Day off revolves around a kid who is playing hooky with his two friends. The most simplest ideas are often the greatest which, as a movie review, astounds me. But, despite this, Ferris Bueller s much more than a ‘simple story’. It goes into the lives of three teenagers, all with different problems, and just trying to forget about those problems for one day and to relax and go outside.