I watched this movie in desperation having run out of Thanksgiving fare. I was hoping it might somehow be better than received. Unfortunately it wasn't. Overall the movie was recognizable as John Hughes script and had a chance, but to be brutally honest, like Curly herself, she just wasn't cute enough for that role. This movie puts average on a pedestal and it doesn't work. The only way it could have worked is to have the child actor steal the show like Macaulay Culkin did in the Home Alone franchise. Unfortunately, Curly fit too well as a streetwise runaway type, modern day throwback to the Dickens era. Cheeky, disrespectful, yuck. Someone we don't want to identify with or admire, certainly not suburban America, thus the low ratings. Bottom line - curly is not endearing to the audience as a street child and was miscast in this role. In other words, she was cast literally, not creatively. The audience wants to be surprised. She would have fit better in a horror movie. This movie could have worked, though, too bad. It had a good Thanksgiving message but not a word about any holidays and the church was kept right out of it. Memo to the writers - if you're going to use a goodwill theme, lose secular. It doesn't work. The idea of taking in homeless people to live in your home that don't have serious issues like addiction or mental illness is also trivializing their condition. This movie cost over $25 million and received mostly negative reviews. It made a bit of money, most likely because it was a John Hughes film, the last before he died. Or maybe just too many people snuck into the theatre without buying tickets and soda.
Review of Curly Sue
