Ronald Miller (Patrick Dempsey) is a nerdy kid. Cindy Mancini (Amanda Peterson) is the school queen bee cheerleader. Her mother would like her to go out with nice boys like the Miller lawnboy instead of her narcissistic football player boyfriend Bobby. Bobby is now in college and has left Cindy behind. She ruins her mom's jacket and needs to replace it. Ronald is tired of playing cards with his dorky friends. He sees a distraught Cindy at the mall. Instead of buying a telescope, he comes up with a scheme to become popular by pretending to date for one month. His little brother Chuckie (Seth Green) is suspicious.

This one does a switch with the normal teen movie cliché and gives the guy an exterior makeover. I didn't see the appeal of Dempsey or his character back in the day. I guess many others saw the McDreamy hidden underneath. It still baffles me a little but at least he's a neurosurgeon on the TV show. The formula works to a limited extend. Amanda Peterson does well to transition from shallow queen bee into a deeper pool. She's a great 'Where are they now?' actress. It's also fun to see a young Seth Green. The climatic lunch encounter is way too earnest which this movie suffers from time to time. Ronald's (cool?) outfit is ridiculously hilarious. It could all work if I actually like Dempsey and his character.

The geek Ronald Miller (Patrick Dempsey) lives with his parents and his younger brother in the suburb and works hard during his vacation mowing lawn for neighbors to save one-thousand dollars to buy a telescope. Ronald is part of an outcast group of nerds with his friend Kenneth Wurman (Courtney Gains) and has a crush on his neighbor, the popular cheerleader Cindy Mancini (Amanda Peterson). When the expensive coat of Cindy is damaged in a party, she goes to the store to propose a deal to the owner to buy another one. Ronald sees and offer one-thousand dollars to buy the coat for her provided she pretends to be his girlfriend for a month. Cindy accepts the deal and Ronald becomes a popular teenager at school. He changes his personality, leaves his nerd friends but four months later he leans the price he has to pay for his achievement.

"Can't Buy Me Love" is a sweet movie from the 80´s with funny moments and a good moral lesson. Ronald Miller learning how to dance in an African show and then repeating the movements in a party at school is maybe the funniest scene. The criticism to people that change the behavior to be popular is also great as well as those that follows these false leaders no matter how ridiculous they are. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Namorada de Aluguel" ("Girlfriend for Rent")

A nerdy outcast (Patrick Dempsey) secretly pays the most popular girl in school (Amanda Peterson) one thousand dollars to be his girlfriend.

At the time this film was made, I do not think anyone involved was terribly well-known. Seth Green was obviously too young to get noticed. Patrick Dempsey had more than ten years to go. And Courtney Gains, though a popular guy in horror circles, has never really made it big. Amanda Peterson is a mystery... she seems to have just stopped.

The plot is fun and a bit predictable, but the predictable parts are what make it fun. Is this really how popularity works? I do not think so, but what do I know? I never understood it in high school and now twenty years later I still have not figured it out.