Ferris Bueller’s Day Off: A Case for Visiting the Art Museum

How Cameron’s Journey Through Art Provides a Path to Healing and Joy

Still from Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, John Hughes, 1986, Paramount Pictures i A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte, Georges Seurat, 1884, The Art Institute of Chicago

There’s a unique joy in rediscovering movies from your childhood through the eyes of your kids, even through the cringey parts, and watching Ferris Bueller’s Day Off with my daughter and then later with my nieces has been an absolute pleasure. Although I expected to revel in Ferris’s unbridled sense of carpe diem — remembering that rebellious teen feeling of wanting to break free from adult responsibilities and expectation, I thought I would enjoy the film as an adult for nostalgia, but no longer identify with the main characters. In fact, I braced myself for the inevitability of rooting for Principal Rooney or Ferris’ parents.

What surprised me instead was how much I resonated with Cameron’s arc, especially as it unfolded during his journey through the city and, more profoundly, in the art museum. It was in this space, surrounded by the power of art, that I saw what Cameron discovered: that art, particularly when experienced in person, can be transformative. And in a world full of fear and a sense of hopelessness, art can provide a sense of healing that we need now more than ever.

Cameron, in many ways, is the hero of the story. He’s the foil to Ferris, the skeptic, the one who…