MovieChat Forums > Can't Buy Me Love (1987) Discussion > It's Extremely Unbelieavable That Patric...

It's Extremely Unbelieavable That Patrick Dempsey Can Not Attract Women


That's what makes Can't Buy Me Love extremely unbelievable. A guy as handsome as Patrick Dempsey can not attract any girls at his high school unless he pays them a lot of money to be his girlfriend.

Yet you have films like Young Adult for example where Charlize Theron has sex with fat, short, and ugly Patton Osawlt FOR FREE. You also have Jason Alexander as George Costanza who is always dating women above his league as well as all of the Kevin James films where he dates beautiful women. And all of those guys are nowhere near as good looking as Patrick Dempsey.

I guess that is why many people refer to Hollywood as Hollyweird. They make films/television shows where ugly guys get all of the women and handsome guys struggle to attract women which is the extreme opposite of real life.

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I dunno, he looked and acted pretty nerdy to me, but that was only before he paid her off. He actually became cool looking afterwards because she taught him how to dress and act etc, give him a lot of style tips or whatever. Sometimes being attractive is all in the attitude. Ronny always had it in him but it took the girl to bring it out of him, just like he encouraged her to become a deeper person by embracing her poetry and teaching her about astronomy and stuff.

The cheese is old and moldy. Where is the bathroom?

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I think that is the point of a lot of movies and show like this.

You take someone who *could be* attractive, with a little work. Make them look nerdy. Dress them in their grandparents' clothes, put too-big-for-their-faces glasses on them, etc.

Then enter someone who "helps them" to find themself, gives them a make-over.

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Actually I do not agree with you. In real life women on average aren´t as hung up on guy´s looks as vice versa. Throughout my life (granted I have lived in Costa Rica for the past 8 years, but I lived in the U.S. during my first 35 years) I have seen many good-looking women have boyfriends/husbands who were average or below-average looking. Women care more about things like money, status, and confidence which makes looks relatively less important. Since Ronald was a nerd in the beginning of this movie and all of his friends were nerds (two of them were nerdier than he was) and was the furthest thing from a jock, didn´t own his own car, e.t.c. it is not surprising or unrealistic that the top-notch popular cheerleaders didn´t want to date him.

In fact I even had a joke that addressed this issue a couple months ago. ¨How is the Republican Party now like a sorority?¨. Answer: Because the ugly *beep* (Trump) is twice as popular as the good-looking nice guy (Rubio).

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Hes not that cute in this movie in my opinion age did him wonders cause he is definitely handsome now. Hes skinny pale has curly hair and a high voice and he is weird whats not to believe here he doesn't really inspire heart throb status at this point in his life? Thats probably why he was cast because he wasn't particularly handsome so he could play nerdy but he could clean up well.

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I think it's believable because he didn't have the attitude, dress sense or social status that seems to attract girls.

If a guy is ugly but behaves like he can get the girls.. often that's exactly what happens.

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Well you have to realize ... Patrick Dempsey was not a dream boat yet by any means .... & he was very nerdy looking etc

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I saw this movie when it came out, and at the time, granted I was only 7, I did NOT think he was cute at all in this - even when Cindy made him over. He just did not have the looks. Decades later when he was on the doctor show (sorry, I never watched it) - I immediately thought of him in this movie. Everyone called him Dr. McDreamy or whatever, and I guess he was okay, but he just never did it for me, probably b/c this was my first impression of him, as this nerdy, skinny boy.

Are you going to your grave with unlived lives in your veins? ~ The Good Girl

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5 years later, but...

I think you are mixing up dynamics here.

Ronald was deemed a high school outcast by his entire class and beyond. In addition to how he dressed and his "eccentric" interests, his classmates would have all treated him poorly because of his high school social status.

We see how easily influenced they are by his "dating" Cindy; that's the premise of the movie.

Charleze, in YA, is not a teenager, but a broken woman (who's on her way to alcoholism). She goes to Patton, in need of comfort, and may be on her way to being a better person, until Patton's sister reminds her of her shallow existence and praises it.

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We see how easily influenced they are by his "dating" Cindy; that's the premise of the movie


Thank God someone gets it! We all had a very short window to reestablish ourselves when we went to high school from how we were perceived in grammar/middle school. Perception is everything, and Ronald was painted early as a geek. Once branded, it takes a lot to change that.

Once dating Cindy, everyone's perception of Ronald changed, which is what Ronald figured what would happen and is, as you point out, the premise of the film.


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In high school it is not as much about looks as it is about having confidence and being part of the right clique. The captain of the football team could be ugly as hell, but chances are that he is dating a cheerleader.

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