My Little Girl
Original post date: 27 May 1987
Rating: ✭✰✰✰
This one was a particularly keen disappointment. It comes from the Merchant-Ivory stable, which has turned out a whole string of tasteful, high-class films, like A Room with a View. And the cast looked so good. It stars Mary Stuart Masterson, who was the best thing (many would say the only good thing) in Some Kind of Wonderful. Also featured are James Earl Jones, the classy actor whose heavy breathing was immortalized in three Star Wars movies, and the excellent Geraldine Page (Oscar winner for The Trip to Bountiful). So, what could go wrong? Answer: the script and the supporting actors. Franny (Masterson) is a 16-year-old rich girl who, in place of parents, has a couple of caricatures of rich people. Mother plays tennis and has a brain the size of a photon. Father is an attorney who gives lip service to liberal ideas but is basically an elitist snob. Franny gets a summer job at The Children’s Center, a facility for female juveniles who are placed there because they are black or because they are white teen-age whores. In the best Mickey Rooney/Judy Garland tradition, Franny thinks she can make these kids’ lives better if they can just put on a show. Her boss is James Earl Jones, who is kind of at a loss. (Instead of asking the director, “What is my motivation here?” he probably kept asking, “How much am I getting paid again?”) Franny gets into serious trouble when a girl she is trying to help is sent to another institution that is so bad that Klaus Barbie would have moral qualms about being associated with it. In an incredible series of events, Franny springs and then gets abducted by a pimp who is the kind of dastardly fellow who drives teenage girls out to the airport and makes them find their own way home. Unfortunately, Geraldine Page, who plays Franny’s blue-haired grandmother, doesn’t get to do anything except look sympathetic and impart some pearls of wisdom now and then. Probably the best thing in the movie is when Franny’s father hands her that old line about him being the one who puts a roof over her head and the clothes on her back. Franny then takes off her clothes and stomps out.
Rating: ✭✰✰✰
This one was a particularly keen disappointment. It comes from the Merchant-Ivory stable, which has turned out a whole string of tasteful, high-class films, like A Room with a View. And the cast looked so good. It stars Mary Stuart Masterson, who was the best thing (many would say the only good thing) in Some Kind of Wonderful. Also featured are James Earl Jones, the classy actor whose heavy breathing was immortalized in three Star Wars movies, and the excellent Geraldine Page (Oscar winner for The Trip to Bountiful). So, what could go wrong? Answer: the script and the supporting actors. Franny (Masterson) is a 16-year-old rich girl who, in place of parents, has a couple of caricatures of rich people. Mother plays tennis and has a brain the size of a photon. Father is an attorney who gives lip service to liberal ideas but is basically an elitist snob. Franny gets a summer job at The Children’s Center, a facility for female juveniles who are placed there because they are black or because they are white teen-age whores. In the best Mickey Rooney/Judy Garland tradition, Franny thinks she can make these kids’ lives better if they can just put on a show. Her boss is James Earl Jones, who is kind of at a loss. (Instead of asking the director, “What is my motivation here?” he probably kept asking, “How much am I getting paid again?”) Franny gets into serious trouble when a girl she is trying to help is sent to another institution that is so bad that Klaus Barbie would have moral qualms about being associated with it. In an incredible series of events, Franny springs and then gets abducted by a pimp who is the kind of dastardly fellow who drives teenage girls out to the airport and makes them find their own way home. Unfortunately, Geraldine Page, who plays Franny’s blue-haired grandmother, doesn’t get to do anything except look sympathetic and impart some pearls of wisdom now and then. Probably the best thing in the movie is when Franny’s father hands her that old line about him being the one who puts a roof over her head and the clothes on her back. Franny then takes off her clothes and stomps out.
Comments
Post a Comment