Truly one of the best underrated films of the 80s. Molly Ringwald stars in the lead as an honor student who gets pregnant and decides to keep the baby with her boyfriend despite their disapproving parents. The material has been covered before but because of the strong performances all around and the engaging screenplay it's elevated. It's fun and tear jerking and just feels so genuine.

A high school ace with everything going for her goofs up and gets pregnant; her mother is devastated, and her boyfriend's parents object, but the teens get married and hope for the best. Molly Ringwald's appealing personality manages to shine through the plastic coating and convictionless screenplay by Denise DeClue and Tim Kazurinsky, good writers who have no idea what tone to set--nor how to wrap things up. The adults are shrill caricatures played cartoonishly over-the-top, while newcomer Randall Batinkoff is just average. Ringwald's career became rudderless after out-growing the John Hughes/teen-angst comedies which made her a star, so why in "For Keeps?" is she back in high school? It's a defeatist move, and while Ringwald never embarrasses herself, she's obviously too smart a cookie to lend any kind of credibility to this hackneyed scenario. ** from ****