Extreme Makeover: Identity Edition

Last night I watched The Breakfast Club with my good friends C&C. Afterwards we talked quite a bit about our own high school experiences and how we could and couldn't relate to John Hughes' magnum opus. One topic came up that always seems to inspire strong reactions: Allison's make-over and subsequent pairing-off with Andy.

I'm curious how people feel about this part of the plot. It seems that it is almost universally agreed that Hughes' made an enormous mistake here, but I'm not completely convinced.

One of the things that has always appealed to me about TBC is that underneath the melodrama it is a pretty accurate depiction of the social landscape of American high schools. At the end of the movie the prom queen and the criminal are going steady, the jock and the freak are walking hand-in-hand, and the nerd - his confidence bolstered by writing a badass little social manifesto of an essay - feels comfortable enough to admit that Carl-the-janitor actually is his friend. And even though Bender's triumphantly upraised fist is captured for eternity in an uplifting freeze-frame, does anyone really believe that when these kids get back to school on Monday morning that anything will have really changed?

That is to say, is Allison's transformation really all that shocking? Disappointing, sure. But shocking? She is alienated and insecure. Her appearance is basically an extension of her desire to protect herself from a hostile world by remaining more or less invisible, but at the same time she is desperate to find someone that will listen to her and take her seriously. It seems to me entirely plausible that she would be willing to try on a little conformity in an attempt to make a connection with her peers.

In a simultaneously related and unrelated note, the Andy/Allison thing also reminded me of Juno: jocks all secretly lust after the freak girls. Oh, and btw, Clea DuVall's character in The Faculty is another case in point.