Rich Kids

12-year-old Manhattan classmates, an intelligent boy and a girl from affluent backgrounds, must deal with their clucking, suspicious, embattled parents. The boy, new in school, is shuffled back and fourth between his bitterly-divorced mother and father, while the girl's parents are trying to conceal from her the fact they are all but officially separated. Faintly amusing comedy-drama wavers uncomfortably at times between satire and hard-shelled sentiment, with the portraits of the immature adults far too obvious. After 22 minutes of character introductions, I was still waiting for the movie to get started. The picture was lent some critical cache at the time because of Robert Altman's involvement as executive producer, though it was released four months after "A Little Romance" and may have confused moviegoers. These kids (Trini Alvarado and Jeremy Levy) are sexually curious, precocious and combative--no angels--and they provide the only interest in an otherwise parched scenario. ** from ****

Franny Philips (Trini Alvarado) is a 12 year old from a well-off Upper East Side home. She's struggling to grow up with suspicions of her parents splitting up. She keeps track of her father Paul (John Lithgow) sneaking into the house in early mornings to pretend to sleep at home. Her parents are constantly fighting. New kid Jamie Harris (Jeremy Levy) is her best friend. His parents are divorced and he teaches her the ways of the broken home. His mother is new-agey while his father has a fast car and a trophy girlfriend.

The normalization of divorce is still new at this point. Trini is amazing. It doesn't need so much of her parents when she's not in the scene. It's her story after all. The boy is good although he could be sweeter. The puppy love is cute. It's a good small movie of a certain time.

Who can not like John Lithgow even when he is an adulterer? But that isn't the main theme of this movie. Kids dealing with divorce in a very touching way is the real story here. I saw this when it was released and was so struck by it I went back and saw it again the next day. In Lawton, Oklahoma, no less. Not my fault, I was in the Army stationed there at Ft. Sill. Years later I got a copy of the VHS and watched it again. Trini Alvarado is just excellent in this. It is what a movie should be, a thoughtful look into people's lives, with the plus of beautiful cine of NYC. Being from the wide open spaces, the whole NYC thing is pretty fascinating to me. Anyway, this is a really good movie that stands up pretty good over lo, these many years.

Rich Kids is a wonderful movie, in so many ways. It depicts a time (the late 70's), a class, New York City, and divorce (which was then becoming a social phenomena) perfectly. However, the main reason to watch this film may very well be to see the then adolescent Trini Alvarado at her best.

The Cast is full of great actors, including John Lithgow and Canada's own Roberta Maxwell, but the standout is Alvarado. Her guileless and tender performance is so brilliant that one is almost hypnotized. Alvarado plays Franny as your typical adolescent girl - curious, too smart for her own good, a little daring - but lets her own qualities poke through, and makes her Franny seem somewhat frail, potentially tragic.

There is always a sense that Franny will crumble under the weight of bad news (like the announcement of her parents divorce), and in some scenes this sense fills the room. The other actors are electrified by this, and give wonderful performances. The scene in the Chinese restaurant - when Franny's parents finally break the news - is heart-breaking...and a little funny.

This is one of two Alvarado movies that are absolute Must See's. The other is Times Square, in which Alvarado once again plays a variation of the seemingly-emotionally-frail poor little rich girl. Once one sees both these movies, one realizes what a rare quality Alvarado had at the time. The only actress to compare is a young Sarah Jessica Parker, but by the time Parker was an adolescent she was too much of a board-trodding, song-belting, Broadway-trouper type to be able to let go and open herself up the way Alvarado could.

Watch Rich Kids with this in mind: you are watching a brilliant, unencumbered, child actor at work. Pure acting from an adult is rare enough, but from a child actor, it is priceless.

Probably woulda been better had producer Robert Altman not outsourced the screenplay and direction to the firm of Ross and Young. As it is we have warmed over Woody Allen; that is if Woody had decided to do teen pics. Solid C.