Desmadre familiar

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.

This movie is perfect for a lazy weekend afternoon. Laura Chartoff (Hilary Wolf) narrates this story about her experiences in a suffocating family setting where she just can't seem to get the affection and sense of control that she'd like to have.

For one thing, the family situation is all screwy. Her mom, who seems to make a hobby out of marriage as Chartoff explains in her quick video history introduction, marries Kieth, a very wealthy guy who appears to be a work-a-holic who treats his kids more like playful accessories than members of the family (notice how he reacts to his youngest son, Sam, who explains that he is writing a thesis about cartoon voilence and the socialization process). Laura's mom is similarly distracted by the luxuries of a being a rich man's wife, though she seems to take a liking to Laura's materialistic step-sister, Corrine. Likewise, Laura has a difficult relating to Kurt, who's father treats him like a house servant rather than a son.

Likewise, even Luara's father, flaky artist (Griffin Dunne) seemed to get stuck in a rather complicated situation, having one child with a nice woman named Barbara, but then wound up with a half-gassed new age artist named Stephanie who is pregnant with his twins.

But Laura finds an opportunity to escape when her stepbrother Josh, Kieth's oldest son who gave up years ago, stops in for a quick visit. Josh promises not to tell Lauara's parents where she is, but worried about her being on her own and the potential undetermined length of her visit, calls on some of the family for help. Laura takes off by then and the whole family gets word and comes looking for Laura. And that's where the story begins. The weekend together forces the family to work out their differences and for the parents to bond with their children, even Laura, who spends most of the time off on adventures while trying to figure things out for herself and wonders if her situation is really all that bad.

It's a funny little movie, but one that is probably best enjoyed on a lazy day.

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