Can't Buy Me Love is a 1987 American teen romantic comedy film directed by Steve Rash,[1] starring Patrick Dempsey and Amanda Peterson in a story about a nerd at a high school in Tucson, Arizona, who gives a cheerleader $1,000 to pretend to be his girlfriend for a month.

She had borrowed her mother's expensive suede outfit without permission to wear to a Labor Day party, only to have wine accidentally spilled on it.

Cindy reluctantly agrees to help Ronald look "cool" by posing as his girlfriend for a month for $1,000 (which was used to replace the ruined outfit), although she already has a boyfriend, Bobby, who is attending the University of Iowa.

Ronald then trades his nerdy, yet loyal, friends for the popular but shallow students, and undergoes a complete clothing and hair makeover under Cindy's direction.

The next day, Cindy notices him behaving arrogantly at school, and becomes jealous and disgusted when she sees him flirting with her best friends Barbara and Patty.

At a New Year's Eve party at Big John's house, Ronald starts drinking and has a romantic tryst with his date, Iris, in the bathroom.

Recognizing Ronald's worth, Cindy chooses to spend an evening with him rather than hang out with her friends, hopping on the back of his riding lawnmower.

The film was originally titled Boy Rents Girl but was changed when rights to The Beatles song of the same name were obtained.

Caryn James, in The New York Times, wrote that the film missed its mark and traded its potential originality for a bid at popularity: Michael Swerdlick, the writer, and Steve Rash, the director ... waste a chance to make the much deeper, funnier movie that strains to break through.... [The film] ... has an identity crisis that's a mirror-image of Ronald's own.

[5]Roger Ebert gave the film a half star out of a possible 4: If "Can't Buy Me Love" had been intended as a satirical attack on American values – if cynicism had been its target – we might be on to something here.

[1]Rotten Tomatoes has a rating of 50% based on 24 critics with the consensus: "While Can't Buy Me Love gets some value out of its plucky leads, this romantic comedy struggles to find grace in a cynical conceit that belongs in the bargain bin.

[7][8] Young Artist Award Touchstone Home Entertainment released the film on VHS and DVD on August 14, 2002.

In 2013, Intrada Records released Robert Folk's complete score for the film on a limited edition CD paired with David Newman's work for Paradise.