''For Keeps'' is a 1988 American

coming of age Coming of age is a young person's transition from being a child to being an adult. The specific age at which this transition takes place varies between societies, as does the nature of the change. It can be a simple legal convention or can b ...

comedy drama Comedy drama, also known by the portmanteau ''dramedy'', is a genre of dramatic works that combines elements of comedy and Drama (film and television), drama. The modern, scripted-television examples tend to have more humorous bits than simple co ...

film starring

Molly Ringwald Molly Kathleen Ringwald (born February 18, 1968) is an American actress, singer, dancer, and author. She was cast in her first major role as Molly in the NBC sitcom '' The Facts of Life'' (1979–80) after a casting director saw her playing an or ...

and

Randall Batinkoff Randall Matthew Batinkoff (born October 16, 1968) is an American actor, known for his roles in the films '' For Keeps'', ''School Ties'', and ''Higher Learning''. Early life and education Batinkoff was born in Monticello, New York, the son of Bar ...

as Darcy and Stan, two high school seniors in love. Complications ensue when Darcy becomes

pregnant Pregnancy is the time during which one or more offspring develops (gestation, gestates) inside a woman, woman's uterus (womb). A multiple birth, multiple pregnancy involves more than one offspring, such as with twins. Pregnancy usually occur ...

just before graduation and decides to keep her baby. This movie is noted for being Ringwald's final "teen" movie, and is cited as one of her most mature performances, particularly in a scene where Darcy is suffering from

postpartum depression Postpartum depression (PPD), also called postnatal depression, is a type of mood disorder associated with childbirth, which can affect both sexes. Symptoms may include extreme sadness, low energy, anxiety, crying episodes, irritability, and chan ...

after the birth of her child. The film marks the debut appearance of

Alex Trebek George Alexander Trebek (; July 22, 1940 – November 8, 2020) was a Canadian-American game show host and television personality. He is best known for hosting the syndicated general knowledge quiz game show ''Jeopardy!'' for 37 season ...

Plot

Kenosha, Wisconsin Kenosha () is a city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin and the seat of Kenosha County. Per the 2020 census, the population was 99,986 which made it the fourth-largest city in Wisconsin. Situated on the southwestern shore of Lake Michigan, Kenos ...

, Darcy, editor at her high school paper, and her steady boyfriend Stan are in their final year of high school and already have been accepted at good colleges. Before Darcy goes to the

University of Wisconsin A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, t ...

to study

journalism Journalism is the production and distribution of reports on the interaction of events, facts, ideas, and people that are the "news of the day" and that informs society to at least some degree. The word, a noun, applies to the occupation (profes ...

, she will go on a trip to

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

with her mother for her graduation present, while Stan will go to

Caltech The California Institute of Technology (branded as Caltech or CIT)The university itself only spells its short form as "Caltech"; the institution considers other spellings such a"Cal Tech" and "CalTech" incorrect. The institute is also occasional ...

to study

architecture Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and constructing building ...

. With the help of Darcy's best friend Lila, Darcy and Stan spend a weekend together and Darcy becomes pregnant. They announce the pregnancy to their families at Thanksgiving. Neither Darcy's single-parent mother Donna nor Stan's

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

parents are very supportive. Respectively, they urge the young couple to have an

abortion Abortion is the termination of a pregnancy by removal or expulsion of an embryo or fetus. An abortion that occurs without intervention is known as a miscarriage or "spontaneous abortion"; these occur in approximately 30% to 40% of pregn ...

or give up the baby for

adoption Adoption is a process whereby a person assumes the parenting of another, usually a child, from that person's biological or legal parent or parents. Legal adoptions permanently transfer all rights and responsibilities, along with filiation, from ...

. Darcy plans to have an abortion, but does not go through with it, much to Stan's relief. At Christmas, the couple announces their plans to keep the baby, causing a break between them and their parents. They rent a decrepit apartment and marry to the cheers of their friends, despite the fact that without parental consent the marriage is not legal. At the urging of her high school guidance counselor, who explains that other girls will want to emulate her and become adolescent mothers themselves, Darcy drops out of high school but works toward her

GED The General Educational Development (GED) tests are a group of four subject tests which, when passed, provide certification that the test taker has United States or Canadian high school-level academic skills. It is an alternative to the US high ...

. Prom is interrupted by Darcy's water breaking. Although baby Thea (short for Theodosia) is healthy, Darcy suffers from

post-partum depression Postpartum depression (PPD), also called postnatal depression, is a type of mood disorder associated with childbirth, which can affect both sexes. Symptoms may include extreme sadness, low energy, anxiety, crying episodes, irritability, and chan ...

, unable to even hold her daughter, and Stan struggles to pay the bills on a part-time job salary. Only when Darcy hears an intruder (who turns out to be Stan's father) and picks up her baby protectively does she break from her depression. Without telling Darcy, Stan sacrifices his Caltech scholarship because there is no married housing at the school for undergraduates. Stan and Darcy’s relationship starts to crumble with fights. Although Stan takes a second dead-end job, the bills pile up, and the couple finally moves in with Donna, which alienates Stan and Darcy, and causes Stan to drink heavily. Local neighborhood girl Michaela informs Darcy of the scholarship deception so she enlists Stan's best friend Chris in a plan to ensure he takes the scholarship and go to college after all. The plan entails throwing Stan out and

annul Annulment is a legal procedure within secular and religious legal systems for declaring a marriage null and void. Unlike divorce, it is usually retroactive, meaning that an annulled marriage is considered to be invalid from the beginning almost ...

ling the marriage. Stan has a bad reaction to the news and later in the night goes into a rage outside their house. Stan reconciles with his parents, but is heartbroken over the split with Darcy, who does not change her mind but becomes visibly angry at her mother's cold attitude. At Darcy's night school graduation, Stan arrives to inform Darcy that he has applied for scholarships to the

University of Wisconsin–Madison A university () is an educational institution, institution of higher education, higher (or Tertiary education, tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several Discipline (academia), academic disciplines. Universities ty ...

for them both. Darcy lets slip her role in the Caltech deception with Chris, and Stan chases after her as she drives away. Darcy finally tells Donna that Stan is a good man, that she loves him and Donna can either embrace them as an entire family or watch them live their lives without her. Donna finally lets go of her hurt over the abandonment of Darcy's father and informs Stan about her daughter when he seeks her out. They reconcile at the school, intending to go forward with their plans to attend college in

Madison Madison may refer to: People * Madison (name), a given name and a surname * James Madison (1751–1836), fourth president of the United States Place names * Madison, Wisconsin, the state capital of Wisconsin and the largest city known by this ...

in the fall as well as setting a curfew for Thea.

Cast

as Darcy Elliot Bobrucz *

as Stan Bobrucz *

Kenneth Mars Kenneth Mars (April 4, 1935 – February 12, 2011) was an American actor. He appeared in two Mel Brooks films: as the deranged Nazi playwright Franz Liebkind in '' The Producers'' (1967) and Police Inspector Hans Wilhelm Friedrich Kemp in ''Young ...

as Mr. Bobrucz *

Miriam Flynn Miriam Flynn (born June 18, 1952) is an American voice and character actress. She is best known as Cousin Catherine in the ''National Lampoon's Vacation'' and Grandma Longneck in ''The Land Before Time'' franchises. She has acted in other films a ...

as Donna Elliot *

Conchata Ferrell Conchata Galen Ferrell (March 28, 1943October 12, 2020) was an American actress. Although she was a regular cast member of five TV sitcoms, she was best known for playing Berta the housekeeper for all 12 seasons of ''Two and a Half Men''. For he ...

as Mrs. Bobrucz * Sharon Brown as Lila * John Zarchen as Chris *

Pauly Shore Paul Montgomery Shore (born February 1, 1968) is an American actor, comedian and filmmaker best known for his roles in 1990s comedy films. Shore began as a stand-up comedian at the age of 17, before becoming an MTV VJ in 1989. This led to a sta ...

as Retro * Michelle Downey as Michaela *

Patricia Barry Patricia Barry (born Patricia Allen White, November 16, 1921 – October 11, 2016) was an American stage, film, and television actress. Although Barry has numerous credits performing in stage productions and in films, the majority of her work wa ...

as Adoption Official *

Janet MacLachlan Janet Angel MacLachlan (August 27, 1933 – October 11, 2010) was an American actress who had roles in such television series as ''The Rockford Files'', ''Alias (TV series), Alias'' and ''The Golden Girls''. She is best remembered for her key s ...

as Miss Giles * Jaclyn-Rose Lester as Mary Bobrucz (as Jaclyn Bernstein) * Matthew Licht as Leo Bobrucz *

Renée Estevez Renée Pilar Estevez (born April 2, 1967) is an American former actress and screenwriter. Early years Estevez was born in New York City, the youngest child and only daughter of artist Janet (née Templeton) and actor Martin Sheen (legally Ramón ...

as Marnie *

Darcy DeMoss Darcy L. DeMoss (born August 19, 1963) is an American film and television actress whose credits include '' Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives'', ''Eden'', ''Erotic Confessions'', ''Pale Blood'', '' Stickfighter'' and ''Vice Academy 3''. She pla ...

as Elaine

Production

Filming

The film is set in

and was partially filmed there. Primary location work took place in

Winnipeg, Manitoba Winnipeg () is the capital and largest city of the province of Manitoba in Canada. It is centred on the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine rivers, near the longitudinal centre of North America. , Winnipeg had a city population of 749,6 ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

. The film had a number of titles while in production, possibilities including "Maybe, Baby" (by which it is known in some overseas territories) and "For Keeps?", before settling on the final question mark-less version. John Zarchen suffered a life-threatening head injury while driving in Hollywood. He survived a brief period of being comatose, and actually returned to the film, although director John Avildsen, due to his medical absence and disgusted with the actor's disregard for the opportunity and the production, greatly cut down his role. This movie also marks the film debut of

, who appears in a small role as another friend of Stan. The musical score features a lullaby-like version of the song "

Be My Baby "Be My Baby" is a song by American girl group the Ronettes that was released as a single on Philles Records in August 1963. Written by Jeff Barry, Ellie Greenwich, and Phil Spector, the song was the Ronettes' biggest hit, reaching number 2 in ...

", sung by composer

Ellie Greenwich Eleanor Louise Greenwich (October 23, 1940 – August 26, 2009) was an American pop music singer, songwriter, and record producer. She wrote or co-wrote "Da Doo Ron Ron", "Be My Baby", "Maybe I Know", " Then He Kissed Me", "Do Wah Diddy Diddy" ...

Casting

Acto
Adam Silbar
was originally cast in the lead role of Stan but, for unknown reasons, the role was later re-cast with Randall Batinkoff just weeks before the first day of production. Author and casting director Paul G. Bens, Jr., then an actor, was one of the two finalists to replace Silbar. The role ultimately went to Batinkoff.

Release

Critical reception

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

aggregate score gave the film a 17% rotten rating based on 12 reviews.

Roger Ebert Roger Joseph Ebert (; June 18, 1942 – April 4, 2013) was an American film critic, film historian, journalist, screenwriter, and author. He was a film critic for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, Ebert beca ...

gave the film a positive review saying, "The movies of Molly Ringwald have been responsible for a revolution in the way Hollywood regards teenagers. Before Ringwald (and her mentor, John Hughes) there were only horny teenagers, dead teenagers, teenage vampires and psychotic crackups. Now teenage movies are working their way through some of the aspects of the normal life of American teenagers, and in 'For Keeps,' Ringwald plays a popular high school senior who gets pregnant and gets married."

Janet Maslin Janet R. Maslin (born August 12, 1949) is an American journalist, best known as a film and literary critic for ''The New York Times''. She served as a ''Times'' film critic from 1977 to 1999 and as a book critic from 2000 to 2015. In 2000 Maslin ...

of ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' said, "Most of ''For Keeps'' is entirely predictable, but that should do little to diminish its interest for audiences of high-school age. Here again, Miss Ringwald is the very model of teen-age verisimilitude, and she's most impressive in making even the most hackneyed situations seem real. In fact, she's so good she's almost a problem. Mr. Batinkoff, while pleasant, is no real match for her, and the glowering parents who make their kids' lives miserable for a time are no real threat. There is the feeling that Miss Ringwald's Darcy can triumph over anything. But perhaps that's just what Mr. Avildsen had in mind." Judge Brian Pope gave a positive review saying, "Pretty but approachable, smart but funny, cool but sweet, Ringwald represented everything most high-school girls wanted to be: the girl next door who always got the guy without compromising her values. Small wonder she is still regarded as an icon of 1980s teen cinema. It wasn't until Ringwald began dipping her toes into slightly more adult roles that she lost her footing. Take 'For Keeps', for instance. This movie dared to suggest that even a popular honors student is capable of making wrong decisions that result in life-changing consequences. More crucially, Ringwald suggested to her fans that the qualities they found so endearing in her aren't always adequate substitutes for natural maturity. Perhaps that was a bitter pill for her fans to swallow, but it's not such a bad message, and, more than 15 years after its release, 'For Keeps' isn't such a bad movie." David Nusair gave a more negative review saying, "''For Keeps'' takes a potentially intriguing subject (two teenagers attempting to start their lives together) and piles on cliche after cliche, until it's about as compelling as an afterschool special."

Box office

In January 1988, the film debuted at #4 at the box office (behind ''

Good Morning, Vietnam ''Good Morning, Vietnam'' is a 1987 American war comedy film written by Mitch Markowitz and directed by Barry Levinson. Set in Saigon in 1965, during the Vietnam War, the film stars Robin Williams as a radio DJ on Armed Forces Radio Service, who ...

'', ''

Three Men and a Baby ''Three Men and a Baby'' is a 1987 American comedy film directed by Leonard Nimoy. It stars Tom Selleck, Steve Guttenberg, and Ted Danson as three bachelors as they attempt to adapt their lives to de facto fatherhood with the arrival of the love ...

'', and ''

Moonstruck ''Moonstruck'' is a 1987 American romantic comedy-drama film directed and co-produced by Norman Jewison, written by John Patrick Shanley, and starring Cher, Nicolas Cage, Danny Aiello, Olympia Dukakis, and Vincent Gardenia. The film follows Lor ...

''). Grossing $17,514,553 domestically, the film is a box office success given its estimated budget of $10 million.

Home media

On March 23, 2004 the film was released on

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kin ...

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:For Keeps (Film) 1988 films 1980s teen comedy-drama films American teen comedy-drama films Films scored by Bill Conti Films directed by John G. Avildsen Films set in Wisconsin Films shot in Winnipeg American pregnancy films Teenage pregnancy in film TriStar Pictures films 1988 comedy films 1988 drama films 1980s pregnancy films 1980s English-language films 1980s American films