MovieChat Forums > Can't Buy Me Love (1987) Discussion > What About Cindy Lying?

What About Cindy Lying?

posted 9 years ago by asherdee
11 replies | jump to latest

I'm curious as to why Cindy's friends weren't angry at her. She also was defrauding them by pretending to be his girlfriend and furthermore accepting money from him to do so. I get that she was already popular but even so, it seems to me that this would be looked down upon even on a popular student, as shown by Bobby's reaction when he told her "That makes you a prostitute!". They didn't even question her whatsoever about her role in the scheme. Just an observation...

[–] Catnip86 9 years ago

People in the "popular crowd" never see anyone in their circle as doing anything wrong. It always completely the other person's fault.

[–] jayhn1111 9 years ago

You're not the first person to address that. They probably gave her a pass because she got money out of it. But they were mad at being duped into thinking Ronald the geek was like a god and blamed him. Cindy came off looking pretty pathetic. She destroyed Ronald and threw him under the bus for Bobby who basically kicked her to the curb as soon as he went to college. She says "see, even Bobby thinks we went out". Uhh yeah, that was the deal. She was supposed to let everybody think they were together. But then she grovels to Bobby to try and get him to forgive her and ruins Ronald for good

[–] drummsteven23 8 years ago

One more thing might have factored into their decision to blame Ronald and not Cindy. The whole ruse was Ronald´s idea, not Cindy´s, which might be why they blamed Ronald. They probably assumed that she needed the money very badly and that he took advantage of her while she was in a desperate situation. Plus they had been friends with her for much longer.

[–] jayhn1111 8 years ago

That's a fair point about it being his idea. I could see that having something to do with it. I know I said that the money played a big factor but looking back I'm not so sure it would have made that much of a difference. I think it was mostly a matter of her being one of them for a long time and the fact that he scammed his way into being one of them and really wasn't. I think either way he was going to take the fall

[–] shadaif 8 years ago

Notice you don't really see the girls interacting with popular guys after the New Year party. Maybe something was said that drove a wedge between them. Even at the end it was a different guy driving the convertible that Cindy's friends were riding in.

"The end of the shoelace is called the...IT DOESN'T MATTER!"

[–] jayhn1111 8 years ago

I don't remember specifically about the other dude driving the car. It's been years since I saw it, but I remember thinking how everybody's outlook kinda changed after the lunch scene with the baseball bat or whatever it was.

[–] Jack2979 8 years ago

Not only did she destroy Ronald, she lied during her drunken speech which made the situation worse than it really was. She said "he said that all of you would worship him if we went out, and I didn't believe him I was like no way!". Now doesn't that make him seem like more of an a55hole? It made it seem like Ronald thought that the cool crowd were a bunch of idiots, when in reality all he wanted was to use Cindy to get his foot in the door to make new friends so he could have a fun senior year - that doesn't mean that he bought them. He was being himself when he was with Cindy making friends, he just let the popularity get to his head after they broke up - he was acting just like them. I don't see what was so bad about that. The only bad thing he did was ditch his old friends and throw shyt at Kenneth's house.

[–] Catnip86 8 years ago

I know! He never said they would "worship" him. Just that being with her would get people to like him.

[–] desrozenko 8 years ago

Yeah, I was confused about that worshipping part too?? I assumed it must be part of the conversation we don't get to hear when Ronald first enters the dress shop. We see him explaining his idea to her, in front of the shop keeper. But it's shot through the glass door, then Cindy says, "You want to rent me??" I figure she must be explaining that conversation later on at the party.

I thought you came up here to have a nervous breakdown. ..I decided not to have one.

[–] desrozenko 8 years ago

I originally wondered why Cindy's friends weren't angry with her as well, and why she wasn't also treated like an outcast for the lie. But in the scene where she announces the truth, she says, "He bought me, and he bought allll of you." She's calling everyone out for being idiots, including herself. Everyone sees they latched onto Ronnie, and practically dumped Cindy as a friend. We hardly see her with her friends at all, she hangs on the sidelines with that moron, Brent. Everyone realizes Cindy had been genuine as a person, but Ronnie was all an act, and his desperation fooled them and made them look like idiots. I think they feel bad for replacing Cindy with this fraud.

It was established that Bobby and Cindy were the school's golden couple, football player / cheerleading captain. Cindy had lost her friends, and now she's lost her credibility and her boyfriend. I took it as everyone felt Cindy had been selfishly used by Ronnie, but she's the one who lost it all in the end, there was no need to further punish her.

I thought you came up here to have a nervous breakdown. ..I decided not to have one.

[–] asherdee 8 years ago

That's a fair assessment.