Given that its elements have been used in countless other films, though, there's a lot of acting going on here with a capital 'A'.

The best, in particular, come from Ringwald and McCarthy as the couple concerned, both shifting and twitching away like mad, but failing to avoid being upstaged both by Jon Cryer as the heroine's unrequited Teddy Boy-style love.

And we haven't even mentioned Harry Dean Stanton as her disarming father, his five o'clock shadow as permanent as his unemployment.