Curly Sue (1991)

"We take what we get." 

Director

John Hughes

Cast

Alisan Porter - Curly Sue
James Belushi - Bill Dancer
Kelly Lynch - Grey Ellison
John Getz - Walker McCormick
Fred Thompson - Bernard Oxbar
Branscombe Richmond - Albert

John Hughes strikes me as a director who can relate to just about everyone and all the hardships, great and small, we all deal with. 

I made some comments about Hughes in my review of his 1991 movie "Dutch," which was released the same year as the last movie he directed, "Curly Sue." 

His comedies remind me a bit of Neil Simon comedies. Like Simon, Hughes's comedies are often situational and verbal. And like many of Simon's stories, Hughes's movies often center around the relationship between two unlikely people. 

No matter how ordinary the circumstances are, Hughes yanks the tragedy and comedy to the surface and presents it in such a way where the audience laughs instead of cries. 

He writes characters that are really no different than the rest of us. They're likeable characters, simple enough to identify with. And the theme Hughes goes with in so many of his movies centers on relationships, whether romantic, familial, working, friendly or complete strangers. 

The same is often true with Simon. But with all respect to Neil Simon, Hughes really knows how to tug on an audience's emotions and heartstrings. Simon focuses more on the situation with only enough attention on character development to tie the situation up beautifully. 

Hughes's movie "Curly Sue" is often overlooked among his more popular films like "Planes, Trains, and Automobiles," "Home Alone," "Uncle Buck," or "The Breakfast Club" to drop a few titles. It happens to be the last movie he directed before his death in 2009. 

"Curly Sue" was released in 1991. That same year, his movies "Dutch" and "Career Opportunities" were released, both of which Hughes had written. His John Candy film, "Only the Lonely," which he produced, also came out that year. That's a movie I have on my scope! 

This is about the time when Hughes's movies really started to wane as far as popular hits go. 

It seems that after the success of his 1990 comedy "Home Alone" which hoisted then child actor Macaulay Culkin to lofty heights of fame, Hughes tried to do the same with then child actress Alisan Porter who plays the lead in this flick. 

Alisan Porter and James Belushi in "Curly Sue."

In this movie, James Belushi plays Bill Dancer, a vagrant who has taken care of an orphan girl named Curly Sue (Alisan Porter) since her birth. 

Together, they con and scam their way from place to place, meal to meal. 

After working the schlubs of Detroit, they make their way to Chicago. 

While sleeping in a homeless shelter one night, some homeless guy (Ralph Foody - Johnny from "Home Alone") steals Curly Sue's ring which her late mother left her. Though distraught, she handles the theft rather gracefully.

Bill sets up another con in an attempt to get someone to buy them dinner. 

This time he fools wealthy divorce lawyer Grey Ellison (Kelly Lynch) into thinking she hit him with her Mercedes. 

The incident gets Bill and Curly Sue a free meal at a downtown joint called Rocky Feller's House of Beef. It's not the kind of place someone like Grey would normally be found in. 

Grey's snobby and unsympathetic boyfriend, Walker McCormick (John Getz), interrupts the meal to pick up Grey and take her home.

Throughout the night, and into the next day, she can't stop thinking about Bill and Curly Sue. 

The next night, as "luck" would have it, Grey ends up hitting Bill again...and for real, this time...with her car. 

Feeling terrible, she takes Bill and Curly Sue back to her upscale apartment and puts them up for the night. 

After snooping through Curly's bag, Grey realizes Curly is not Bill's daughter. She confronts Bill about it with threats of reporting him to authorities, but Bill makes it clear he will never leave Sue and says it's time for the two to leave.

She quickly has a change of heart and lets the two stay despite their both being complete strangers picked up off the streets of Chicago. 

Fuming with jealousy, Walker reports Bill and Sue to Child Protective Services.

Kelly Lynch and Alisan Porter

People from DCF show up and take Sue to a foster home, and have Bill arrested as he did not have legal custody of Sue. 

During his hold up in jail, Bill recognizes the bum who stole Sue's ring. He forces the guy to tell him what he did with it. It turns out he pawned it. 

Grey bails Bill out of prison, and pulls some legal strings to unite Sue and Bill. 

Thankfully, he knows where the pawn shop is, and goes to look for Sue's ring. 

He also can't stand being away from Sue. And Sue yearns for the only father figure she ever had - Bill. 

"Curly Sue" has heart. And it's clear what's going to happen. Thankfully, it doesn't overdo the cute and sweet emotions. Hughes knows how far to take all that out of respect for the audiences. 

He trusts the audience to feel what he wants them to. Hughes doesn't have to tell them, or force emotions on them. 

Belushi and Porter have great chemistry together. They act like they've known each other for as long as Curly Sue has been alive. Porter is cute and very likeable. She doesn't make her character obnoxious. She does make Curly Sue a strong child with a major vulnerability - the risk of losing Bill. Still, she doesn't quite pull on the audience's heartstrings much. It must have been a challenging performance for Porter. She's a character expected to carry a lot of weight while pulling on the audience's heartstrings. Porter clearly strives to do both but focuses less on being cute and adorable, which might be for the better. It adds some maturity to this young kid. 

Kelly Lynch on the other hand does little for the movie. She barely has any emotion. And she strikes me as a limp jellyfish out of water when acting alongside Belushi and Porter. 

The movie is notable as Steve Carell's film debut. The movie also has a cameo from Edie McClurg who appears in several of Hughes's movies. And Fred Thompson also stars in the film as an attorney in Grey's law firm. 

The humor is too subtle, and the laughs are minimal. The movie even uses cartoon sound effects which are out of place and stupid. 

But "Curly Sue" isn't terrible. The characters are memorable and easy to become invested in. The performances are decent, except for Lynch's. The plot is intriguing to some degree.

Regardless, it's far from the best of Hughes's movies. It strives to be charming. There's some charm but not enough. There's little depth in "Curly Sue." Overall, the movie feels like it's lacking.