For Keeps

A film set in an American high school. Darcy and Stan are in their last year. Both are good students; she edits the school paper, he wants to study architecture and both have their university plans ready. Darcy becomes pregnant. They decide to marry. Both families object: her mother is afraid her own life will be repeated, his family are thinking of their son's future. The couple marry anyway and start living on their own. From there the film describes daily life: rent, finding work, night shifts, what a baby costs and the decision to leave school. After the birth Darcy goes through a hard period, and that is the most serious part of the narrative; the film does not treat it lightly. What the narrative is interested in is whether love is enough: the two love each other and that does not pay the rent. Molly Ringwald plays Darcy and Randall Batinkoff plays Stan. Kenneth Mars and Miriam Flynn are in the cast. John G. Avildsen directed. It was made while Ringwald was trying to move out of teen films and takes on a heavier subject. A suitable choice for anyone who likes the youth films of the 1980s and realistic family drama. For a viewer expecting a light teen comedy, the film treats its subject seriously.