CURLY SUE

title: CURLY SUE
year: 1991
cast: Jim Belushi, Alisan Porter, Kelly Lynch, John Getz, Fred Dalton
rating: *

Curly Sue will steal your heart... till you don't have one anymore. And then, heartless, you'll seethe in anger watching one of the worst examples of class envy ever made. For in Chicago, Illinois, there are only two kinds of people: the rich... Kelly Lynch as a bad lawyer turned good, and John Getz as a bad lawyer turned even worse; and the poor... our heroes Jim Belushi, a con-man vagabond with a ten year old daughter, Curly Sue, in toe: helping him scheme people out of money. It's when you see a horrible movie by a lightweight director like John Hughes that you realize his brilliance otherwise. Using the close-up punch in the face gag (think UNCLE BUCK socking the clown) more than a dozen times, and with music so pulsating with contrived sympathy, this Hughes mess (his last directed project) isn't only unfunny, but has no plot whatsoever. But perhaps there's a theme: bums have hearts of gold, and anyone with money can be redeemed: if only they realize the theme of this movie. Blech!