FILM REVIEW - 'Big Girls Don't Cry' By Kirk HoneycuttWhat surprises you about "Big Girls Don't Cry . . . They Get Even'' is not that Joan Micklin Silver has made a soft, derivative film suffering from a bad case of the "cutes.''
What surprises one is that she has abandoned her astute sense of character that enlivened "Hester Street, ''" Between the Lines, '' "Crossing Delancey'' and especially "Chilly Scenes of Winter.''
In this John Hughes-styled comedy, the older a character, the less engaged are their brain cells.
These adult caricatures exist not only in the script, but in the actors' performances. Never before has Silver allowed actors to approach roles so two-dimensionally.
With its adolescent point of view and a title not likely to entice Silver's usual sophisticated viewership, "Big Girls'' will need careful positioning by New Line to attract its audience.
The view here is that its current advertising tag line -- "Watch out. She's seen 'Thelma & Louise' '' -- is headed in the wrong direction.
The film's focal point is Laura (well played by Hillary Wolf), a spunky, witty 13-year-old. As the story's narrator, she lays out her problem up-front: She's a member of a fractured family because her biological parents possess the emotional stability of soap-opera characters.
As a consequence, she has a wealthy stepfather, an ex-stepmother, three step siblings, two half-siblings and a potential new stepmother pregnant with twins.
Weary of being ignored amid this clutter of offspring, Wolf flees to a lakeside resort run by Josh (Dan Futterman), the one stepbrother she likes.
The entire family takes off after the runaway and, in the process, learns that even a fractured family can pull together and function as a unit.
Unfortunately, Frank Mugavero's script plays like a TV sitcom pilot where each family member is handed a bundle of comic ticks. Certainly nothing new has been added to this overly familiar territory.
The only characters explored in any depth, Laura and Josh, evoke less sympathy than the filmmakers undoubtedly intend.
For all her wisecracks, the poor little rich girl is essentially a brat who wants further spoiling. And Josh has a morbid obsession with his mother's death. Why should he expect his father to grieve forever?
Laura's two interludes while on the road -- with a gung-ho, All-American family and a trio of teen bandits -- are so confusingly played by Silver that whatever point the film tries to make gets lost.
Production values are fair with color inconsistencies in the print press screened.
BIG GIRLS DON'T CRY...THEY GET EVEN
New Line Cinema
Producers Laurie Perlman, Gerald T. Olson
Director Joan Micklin Silver
Writer Frank Mugavero
Story by Melissa Goddard, Mark Goddard, Frank Mugavero
Executive producers Peter Morgan, Melissa Goddard
Director of photography Theo Van de Sande
Production designer Victoria Paul
Music Patrick Williams
Editor Janice Hampton
Costume designer Jane Ruhm
Color
Cast:
Laura Hillary Wolf
Keith David Strathairn
Melinda Margaret Whitton
David Griffin Dunne
Josh Dan Futterman
Barbara Patricia Kalember
Stephanie Adrienne Shelly
Corrine Jenny Lewis
Sam Ben Savage
Kurt Trenton Teigen
Running time -- 96 minutes
MPAA Rating: PG
(c) The Hollywood Reporter...
In this John Hughes-styled comedy, the older a character, the less engaged are their brain cells.
These adult caricatures exist not only in the script, but in the actors' performances. Never before has Silver allowed actors to approach roles so two-dimensionally.
With its adolescent point of view and a title not likely to entice Silver's usual sophisticated viewership, "Big Girls'' will need careful positioning by New Line to attract its audience.
The view here is that its current advertising tag line -- "Watch out. She's seen 'Thelma & Louise' '' -- is headed in the wrong direction.
The film's focal point is Laura (well played by Hillary Wolf), a spunky, witty 13-year-old. As the story's narrator, she lays out her problem up-front: She's a member of a fractured family because her biological parents possess the emotional stability of soap-opera characters.
As a consequence, she has a wealthy stepfather, an ex-stepmother, three step siblings, two half-siblings and a potential new stepmother pregnant with twins.
Weary of being ignored amid this clutter of offspring, Wolf flees to a lakeside resort run by Josh (Dan Futterman), the one stepbrother she likes.
The entire family takes off after the runaway and, in the process, learns that even a fractured family can pull together and function as a unit.
Unfortunately, Frank Mugavero's script plays like a TV sitcom pilot where each family member is handed a bundle of comic ticks. Certainly nothing new has been added to this overly familiar territory.
The only characters explored in any depth, Laura and Josh, evoke less sympathy than the filmmakers undoubtedly intend.
For all her wisecracks, the poor little rich girl is essentially a brat who wants further spoiling. And Josh has a morbid obsession with his mother's death. Why should he expect his father to grieve forever?
Laura's two interludes while on the road -- with a gung-ho, All-American family and a trio of teen bandits -- are so confusingly played by Silver that whatever point the film tries to make gets lost.
Production values are fair with color inconsistencies in the print press screened.
BIG GIRLS DON'T CRY...THEY GET EVEN
New Line Cinema
Producers Laurie Perlman, Gerald T. Olson
Director Joan Micklin Silver
Writer Frank Mugavero
Story by Melissa Goddard, Mark Goddard, Frank Mugavero
Executive producers Peter Morgan, Melissa Goddard
Director of photography Theo Van de Sande
Production designer Victoria Paul
Music Patrick Williams
Editor Janice Hampton
Costume designer Jane Ruhm
Color
Cast:
Laura Hillary Wolf
Keith David Strathairn
Melinda Margaret Whitton
David Griffin Dunne
Josh Dan Futterman
Barbara Patricia Kalember
Stephanie Adrienne Shelly
Corrine Jenny Lewis
Sam Ben Savage
Kurt Trenton Teigen
Running time -- 96 minutes
MPAA Rating: PG
(c) The Hollywood Reporter...
- 4/1/1992
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
FILM REVIEW - 'Big Girls Don't Cry' By Kirk HoneycuttWhat surprises you about "Big Girls Don't Cry . . . They Get Even'' is not that Joan Micklin Silver has made a soft, derivative film suffering from a bad case of the "cutes.''
What surprises one is that she has abandoned her astute sense of character that enlivened "Hester Street, ''" Between the Lines, '' "Crossing Delancey'' and especially "Chilly Scenes of Winter.''
In this John Hughes-styled comedy, the older a character, the less engaged are their brain cells.
These adult caricatures exist not only in the script, but in the actors' performances. Never before has Silver allowed actors to approach roles so two-dimensionally.
With its adolescent point of view and a title not likely to entice Silver's usual sophisticated viewership, "Big Girls'' will need careful positioning by New Line to attract its audience.
The view here is that its current advertising tag line -- "Watch out. She's seen 'Thelma & Louise' '' -- is headed in the wrong direction.
The film's focal point is Laura (well played by Hillary Wolf), a spunky, witty 13-year-old. As the story's narrator, she lays out her problem up-front: She's a member of a fractured family because her biological parents possess the emotional stability of soap-opera characters.
As a consequence, she has a wealthy stepfather, an ex-stepmother, three step siblings, two half-siblings and a potential new stepmother pregnant with twins.
Weary of being ignored amid this clutter of offspring, Wolf flees to a lakeside resort run by Josh (Dan Futterman), the one stepbrother she likes.
The entire family takes off after the runaway and, in the process, learns that even a fractured family can pull together and function as a unit.
Unfortunately, Frank Mugavero's script plays like a TV sitcom pilot where each family member is handed a bundle of comic ticks. Certainly nothing new has been added to this overly familiar territory.
The only characters explored in any depth, Laura and Josh, evoke less sympathy than the filmmakers undoubtedly intend.
For all her wisecracks, the poor little rich girl is essentially a brat who wants further spoiling. And Josh has a morbid obsession with his mother's death. Why should he expect his father to grieve forever?
Laura's two interludes while on the road -- with a gung-ho, All-American family and a trio of teen bandits -- are so confusingly played by Silver that whatever point the film tries to make gets lost.
Production values are fair with color inconsistencies in the print press screened.
BIG GIRLS DON'T CRY...THEY GET EVEN
New Line Cinema
Producers Laurie Perlman, Gerald T. Olson
Director Joan Micklin Silver
Writer Frank Mugavero
Story by Melissa Goddard, Mark Goddard, Frank Mugavero
Executive producers Peter Morgan, Melissa Goddard
Director of photography Theo Van de Sande
Production designer Victoria Paul
Music Patrick Williams
Editor Janice Hampton
Costume designer Jane Ruhm
Color
Cast:
Laura Hillary Wolf
Keith David Strathairn
Melinda Margaret Whitton
David Griffin Dunne
Josh Dan Futterman
Barbara Patricia Kalember
Stephanie Adrienne Shelly
Corrine Jenny Lewis
Sam Ben Savage
Kurt Trenton Teigen
Running time -- 96 minutes
MPAA Rating: PG
(c) The Hollywood Reporter...
In this John Hughes-styled comedy, the older a character, the less engaged are their brain cells.
These adult caricatures exist not only in the script, but in the actors' performances. Never before has Silver allowed actors to approach roles so two-dimensionally.
With its adolescent point of view and a title not likely to entice Silver's usual sophisticated viewership, "Big Girls'' will need careful positioning by New Line to attract its audience.
The view here is that its current advertising tag line -- "Watch out. She's seen 'Thelma & Louise' '' -- is headed in the wrong direction.
The film's focal point is Laura (well played by Hillary Wolf), a spunky, witty 13-year-old. As the story's narrator, she lays out her problem up-front: She's a member of a fractured family because her biological parents possess the emotional stability of soap-opera characters.
As a consequence, she has a wealthy stepfather, an ex-stepmother, three step siblings, two half-siblings and a potential new stepmother pregnant with twins.
Weary of being ignored amid this clutter of offspring, Wolf flees to a lakeside resort run by Josh (Dan Futterman), the one stepbrother she likes.
The entire family takes off after the runaway and, in the process, learns that even a fractured family can pull together and function as a unit.
Unfortunately, Frank Mugavero's script plays like a TV sitcom pilot where each family member is handed a bundle of comic ticks. Certainly nothing new has been added to this overly familiar territory.
The only characters explored in any depth, Laura and Josh, evoke less sympathy than the filmmakers undoubtedly intend.
For all her wisecracks, the poor little rich girl is essentially a brat who wants further spoiling. And Josh has a morbid obsession with his mother's death. Why should he expect his father to grieve forever?
Laura's two interludes while on the road -- with a gung-ho, All-American family and a trio of teen bandits -- are so confusingly played by Silver that whatever point the film tries to make gets lost.
Production values are fair with color inconsistencies in the print press screened.
BIG GIRLS DON'T CRY...THEY GET EVEN
New Line Cinema
Producers Laurie Perlman, Gerald T. Olson
Director Joan Micklin Silver
Writer Frank Mugavero
Story by Melissa Goddard, Mark Goddard, Frank Mugavero
Executive producers Peter Morgan, Melissa Goddard
Director of photography Theo Van de Sande
Production designer Victoria Paul
Music Patrick Williams
Editor Janice Hampton
Costume designer Jane Ruhm
Color
Cast:
Laura Hillary Wolf
Keith David Strathairn
Melinda Margaret Whitton
David Griffin Dunne
Josh Dan Futterman
Barbara Patricia Kalember
Stephanie Adrienne Shelly
Corrine Jenny Lewis
Sam Ben Savage
Kurt Trenton Teigen
Running time -- 96 minutes
MPAA Rating: PG
(c) The Hollywood Reporter...
- 4/1/1992
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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