| Girls Just Want to Have Fun | |
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Theatrical release poster |
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| Directed by | Alan Metter |
| Produced by | James G. Robinson Chuck Russell Stuart Cornfeld (executive producer) Robert F. Lyons (associate producer) |
| Written by | Amy Spies |
| Starring | Sarah Jessica Parker Lee Montgomery Helen Hunt Morgan Woodward Ed Lauter Jonathan Silverman Shannen Doherty |
| Music by | Thomas Newman |
| Cinematography | Thomas E. Ackerman |
| Editing by | Lorenzo DeStefano David Rawlins |
| Distributed by | New World Pictures |
| Release date(s) | April 12, 1985 |
| Running time | 90 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
Girls Just Want to Have Fun is a 1985 dance film starring Sarah Jessica Parker and Helen Hunt, directed by Alan Metter.
It resembles the style of Footloose and Flashdance. For many years, Comedy Central, Lifetime, USA Network, Lifetime Movie Network and ABC Family have aired the film. As of 2007, ABC Family's sister network, Disney Channel, owns the rights to the film.
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Janey Glenn (Sarah Jessica Parker) is an army brat who is thrilled when her father (Ed Lauter) is transferred to Chicago, the home of her favorite dance show Dance TV. At her Catholic school she quickly makes a new friend in Lynne Stone (Helen Hunt) due to their shared love of dance and Dance TV. When her strict and conservative dad nixes the idea of her traveling to downtown Chicago to try out, Janey accompanies Lynne to the auditions.
At the auditions, an enemy is made of spoiled rich girl Natalie Sands (Holly Gagnier) when she rudely parks her car where Lynne is walking. The auditions are going well until Lynne's partner gets her cut (it is later found out that Natalie paid him to have her kicked out). Janey and a dreamboat named Jeff (Lee Montgomery) both shine, albeit partnered with others at first. They are later paired once the final cut is made. Jeff loves to dance although his father is drilling him to go to trade school and is following his heart instead of his father's wishes.
The two butt heads initially due to their disparate upbringings. Despite Jeff's natural ability to dance, he has never taken a class. Janey has been taking both gymnastics and dance classes for 10 years. Helping them to get off on the wrong foot is also Janey's inability to practice when it's convenient for Jeff. Things are further complicated by Natalie's meddling (she finds out that Janey skipped choir practice to meet Jeff and calls her father to tell, posing as "Sister Natalie").
An excellent opportunity for both girls to get back at Natalie presents itself when Jeff is invited to her coming out party. They make copies of her invitation (provided by Jeff's best friend Drew, played by Jonathan Silverman) and pass them out to strangers all over town. Jeff and Drew attend the party and watch the chaos ensue when all of the extra invited people show up (as do Lynne, Janey and Jeff's sister Maggie, played by Shannen Doherty), from the window).
Janey and Jeff have become close through their rehearsals. One night he tells her to meet him not at the rehearsal studio but at a club. While they are enjoying some unstructured dance time, Jeff is taken away by a girl who locked her keys in her car. Meanwhile, a large admirer moves in on her. On Jeff's return, a fight ensues and after Jeff sucker punches the much larger man they run out of the club together. Once at Janey's house, she is aglow over what her life has become: she's in the running to become a Dance TV regular, has a great best friend as well as a boyfriend. They finally kiss before she excitedly runs inside.
Given the total wreck the party became, the fight with Natalie is intensified. She convinces her father to become more involved in insuring her win. This is an easy feat considering that her father owns the company that Jeff's father works for. Once day Natalie's father, J.P. Sands (Morgan Woodward), corners Jeff and tells him that if Natalie doesn't win, his father will lose his job. This puts him in a bad mood and he fights with Janey when he arrives at rehearsal. Her mood quickly matches his when she arrives home and sneaks in the house only to find that her father has installed a security system. He then grounds her for her continuous deception, making it virtually impossible for her to attend the dance contest finals.
Meanwhile, Jeff's surly attitude and decreased desire to be in the contest is noticed by his father. Once he finally gets his son to talk, he simply asks if he can win the contest. When Jeff answers yes he is instructed to do so, job be damned. However, Janey is still on restriction and doesn't know Jeff has changed his mind. However, that changes when her little brother brings her a message that Jeff will compete and she employs Lynne to get her out of the house undetected.
Once Lynne arrives, Janey cuts the wires to the security system and escapes the clutches of the guard dog. When they arrive at the station, Janey makes the elevator up to the studio and Lynne doesn't. She runs upstairs to make the beginning of the show, embracing and kissing Jeff as she arrives. The show begins and the competition is underway. Midway through the show, Janey's family turns to the contest on the television and sees her dancing. Her father, furious, storms out of the house, on the way to the studio. Meanwhile, Janey's mother (Margaret Howell) is in tears with pride as her younger brother cheers his sister on and Jeff's father watches the show from his neighborhood pub.
After all of the dancers are done, the decision comes back: there is a tie between Janey and Jeff and Natalie and her partner. A dance off ensues. Natalie goes first and when done, strolls off the stage proudly, believing she's won. But after Janey tells Jeff "Let's do it.", they pull out all the stops with a series of synchronized gymnastics Janey has taught Jeff over their time together. When the judges deliberate again, the decision is unanimous: Jeff and Janey win! Natalie is furious and begins to berate her partner over costing her the contest. When she goes to her father to complain, he finally puts his foot down and tells his spoiled child to shut up, to her amazement. When Janey spots her father in the studio, she thinks she's in for trouble, but nothing could be further from the truth as he is extremely proud of her. Miss Dance TV is called to the stage and when she enters, it is none other than Lynne, who has received the job when the former Miss Dance TV quit during the show.
A young Shannen Doherty co-stars in this film as Jeff's bratty younger sister, who states that new wave is cooler than punk. An uncredited Gina Gershon appears as a dancer at the Dance TV auditions, along with actor Scott Coffey.
Cyndi Lauper's version of "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" does not play in this film, due to licensing restrictions. Instead a cover of the song by unknowns Deborah Galli, Tami Holbrook, and Meredith Marshall is featured.
20th Century Fox and Lakeshore Entertainment are working on a remake of the film and have hired Michelle Morgan to write the script.[1]
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