Familienstreß

I watched this movie with my two daughters which are thirteen and eleven years old. They both really liked the movie (so did I). I have never even heard of this movie till I seen it on starz family channel. I would give it a 8/10

Laura Chartoff is a teenager with body issues and dysfunctional families. She lives with her mother Melinda who is in her third marriage. Melinda is closer to her present husband Keith Power's pretty daughter Corinne. Keith also has Kurt who spent a year in military school and adult son Josh. Josh and Keith don't get along. Melinda and Keith have young genius son Sam. Laura's father David has three ex-wives, getting divorced to Barbara who is the mother of their young daughter Jessie, and living off of pregnant girlfriend Stephanie. He's an artistically blocked painter. Family dramas are inevitable. Laura runs away to live with her blacksheep stepbrother Josh.

This could be a functional teenage coming-of-age story. Hillary Wolf's big role is Macaulay Culkin's sister in Home Alone. She doesn't have it or the big screen charisma to lead a big cast. Expositions are sometimes a necessary evil and this is definitely one of those times. This movie needs a fun two minute animation of all of her parents' marriages and kids. It's simply too much work to write down the org chart while trying to get involved with the story. It would also allow Laura to stay at the center of the screen instead of going off with the other family members. It gets to a point where Laura doesn't seem to be the lead character. This simply has too much going on.

A girl, Laura, played admirably by Hilary Wolf is a child of divorce and remarriages. In this film, she decides to bail out of her posh Los Angeles home where she lives with her mother played by the divine Margaret Whitton and her stepfather, Keith, played by David Strathairn. She runs away to her stepbrother JOsh's home in the mountains while her family is planning to vacation in Hawaii which screws up their vacation plans. When they all make a detour, Laura runs away again to fend on herself. She's smart and brassy and thinks she knows it all. Her family including her stepbrother, half-brother Sam, and stepsister Corinne played by the wonderful Jenny Lewis remain in the California mountains until they find Laura. In the meantime, her real father, an artist, arrives from San Francisco with his former wife played by Patricia Kalember and Stephanie, a young girl who is pregnant with his twins. He also has a daughter, Jessie with Kalember's character. They await for Laura to return on her own but in the meantime, the family is together. It's an unusual comedy and drama but it works because of the cast.

A teenaged girl (Hillary Wolf) protests about the so called "revolving door" marriages that both of her parents have gone through over the years. It has left her part of a bizarre overextended family. A delightful cast and some hilarious moments save what could've been a very weak film.

Big Girls don't...... is a story of a thirteen year old girl who thinks her family don't love her. When her family is going on a road trip she decides to run away. Old story in a new raincoat but still entertaining.

Just see this movie when you are tired of action/horror/SF movies and see it with your friends/family/loved one.

6 out of 10 stars