In his capsule review of 'Little Darlings,' Leonard Maltin writes, "(it's) not quite as sleazy as it sounds, but not very inspiring either," which pretty much sums up reaction to this 'coming of age' film. I tend to mostly agree with that sentiment, though I find it a bit unfair. While certainly no classic, 'Little Darlings' does have its moments as well as two fine performances by Tatum O'Neal and Kristy McNichol. The young actresses had already established themselves as up-and-comers, O'Neal by being the youngest actress to win an Oscar (for 'Paper Moon') while McNichol had garnered favorable notices for her tomboy-ish role in the TV series, 'Family.' In 'Little Darlings,' O'Neal plays Ferris, a precocious teen girl of privilege and McNichol plays, well, a tomboy named Angel with a lot of street smarts who is more sensitive than she lets on. So neither actress is really playing against type here. They do show their acting chops though and they're both better than the material. They go to a girls' summer camp and find themselves in the center of a contest to see which of them can lose her virginity first. The other girls at the camp split into competing teams and place bets. This is where a lot of confusion about the film comes from; it was marketed as sort of a female version of 'Porky's' and this is a wholly inaccurate portrayal of the movie. Much of it could be lifted straight from a Disney flick; there's a predictably lame food fight and an 'oh gosh, aren't we wild' hijacking of a school bus. 'Little Darlings' can't decide if it wants to be a G-rated kids flick or a serious drama about growing up. But it certainly has nothing in common with 'Porky's.' Angel sets her sights on a suitable prospect (Matt Dillon) at the boy's camp across the lake; she seems less worried about having sex, since her floozy mother has described it as "no big deal." Ferris is a bit more ambitious. She targets a camp counselor, Gary (Armand Assante), a grown man no less, and envisions them having a romantic candle-lit dinner before whatever happens when you have sex takes place. In the end, Angel does have an intimate encounter of sorts with 'Randy' (good name) but it turns out to be disappointing and disturbing to her, more so than she envisioned. Ferris, on the other hand, blithely concocts in her mind a night of passion with Gary as she imagines it might be, which she describes in such rapturous terms to the other girls that they all believe she did, in fact, go to bed with him. The moral, no doubt, is that for a 16-year-old girl, fantasizing about sex is much better than actually having it. Or at least it was in this case. Some of the scenes toward the end are so well written and performed, it seems a shame they have to share screen time with the goofy nonsense in the middle. 'Little Darlings' wants to be more than it is, but only occasionally gets it right. It's also a shame that both Tatum O'Neal and Kristy McNichol were unable, for various reasons, to capitalize on their early successes and continue with interesting and successful roles. They showed a lot of promise, and 'Little Darlings' is worth seeing for their performances alone.
Review of Little Darlings
