Rich Kids

Rich Kids

Paul and Madeline Philips (John Lithgow and Kathryn Walker) who are from the best of the Mid Manhattan Middle Class are now popularly known as a couple ready to divorce. Only Paul’s reluctance to unduly traumatize their twelve-year-old daughter Franny (Trini Alvarado) seems to pull them together.

She is quite a lot more clever and perceptive than either of her parents ascribes her to be. For example, she is able to get her mother to agree to nearly anything because she asks when her mother is in the early morning foul mood. And Franny already knows that her dad comes back home just before she wakes up and that he does not spend the nights anymore at their home.

Franny’s schoolmate and best friend, Jamie (Jeremy Levy), is new in school and has been through similar experiences. He has one of those elusive dreams having parents who are separated. His mother (Roberta Maxwell) is now married to a trembling hair-gelled psychiatrist (Paul Dooley) while his father (Terry Kiser) a producer of television commercials is permanently ‘dating’ what Jamie identifies as ‘super stupid’.

A minor conflict is triggered as Jame and Franny go to his father’s pad for a private session. One zone is climatic with plants, lazy fish and singing birds. On the opposite area, there is a water bed, round mirrors, music system and a big TV consul. Even though Franny has been covertly scanning The Joy of Sex, Jamie still doesn’t want to go that far. Instead, they order a pizza, watch a horror movie, and have a bubble bath together. The craziness begins when all the four parental figures together with numerous lovers and odd faces pour into the place to find Franny and Jamie in the bathtub.

Robert M. Young (Short Eyes) made Rich Kids with a good attention for the minute victories that characterize Manhattan, the surface of the rich. It is logical that this is a Robert Altman production since the wackiness of the characters and the loose storyline are combined in a pleasantly strange way. Nevertheless, unlike the recent Altman works, this drama cannot be described as a downer by no means.

Kathryn Walker is perfect as Franny’s dysfunctional mother who is teetering between seeking freedom from the past and wanting things to stay as they were. And Jeremy Levy and Trini Alvarado make young resilience sound good.

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