Can't Buy Me Love

Ronald Miller (Dempsey) is a nerd who wants to be in with the cool clique: the elite jocks and cheerleaders of your average American co-ed high school. Miller pays cheerleading princess (Peterson) to step out with him for a month; the ploy works, and pretty soon Ronald has gained a whole new wardrobe and a whole new attitude. So cool does he become that he fails to notice the real warm feelings that the lovely Cindy has developed for him; so when their time is up, he drops her as planned and begins to work his way through her friends. The director has a feel for this shopping-with-Mummy's- plastic milieu, but the theme of peer group pressure and the almost universal human need for acceptance is compromised by a script of very Californian piety. Otherwise a slight but not unenjoyable movie.