Curly Sue
Tags: romantic, melodrama

Plot synopsis:
Bill Dancer and his young companion Curly Sue are the archetypal homeless folks with hearts of gold. Their scams are aimed not at turning a profit, but at getting enough to eat. After moving from Detroit to Chicago, the duo cons the rich divorce lawyer Grey Ellison into believing she backed her Mercedes into Bill, in hopes of a free meal. When Grey accidentally collides with Bill for real, she insists on putting the two up for the night, even over the objections of her snotty fiance Walker McCormick. After a confrontation with Bill exposing the truth of the con, Grey lets them stay for as long as they need when she understands the precarious position the homeless pair are in. One night, Bill tells Grey that he is not Sue's father, he met Sue's mother one night in Florida. After Sue's mother died, Bill raised her himself, growing to love her like his own, thus when they lost their home and money, Bill could not find it in his heart to give Sue up and put her into an orphanage, so he took Sue with him. Grey, thinking Bill has been neglecting and abusing Sue by using her in his cons and scams, suggests Sue stay with her when he leaves, but this only angers Bill, who says that after all the years he looked after her, if he gave up Sue now, people would make fun of her for being on welfare. He tells her that he is not neglecting or abusing Sue; he cares about Sue and his cons are to provide for Sue. However, when it becomes apparent that Sue is completely unable to read or write (despite spelling a difficult word earlier), Grey begins to push even harder for Bill to leave Sue with her. Eventually, Bill realizes that this is where she belongs - in a home, cared for by someone that can give her the advantages that his homeless, nomadic existence lacks. Walker turns them in and Sue gets put into welfare. Bill is arrested, because he never actually had custody of the child. Eventually, Grey gets Sue out and Bill is freed. Sue and Grey return to their apartment, and discover a tin ring (the one which was stolen earlier), which Sue takes as a sign that Bill chose to leave her behind with Grey. (It is implied that Bill pawned a ring left to Sue by her mother, which he would return to her when it came time for the two to part forever) However, the ring is accompanied by a note that says that he is in another room. Sue happily turns to find Bill, realizing that the ring is not a sign that he will leave her but a sign that he is going to abandon his old lifestyle in order to give Sue the home she needs and in order to pursue a romance with Grey.

Review: James "Not Jim" Belushi, a hammy kid actress, and a cheesy title in a John Hughes formula.
It's pretty hard not to fall into the story, develop a crush on Kelly Lynch, identify with James Belushi, dislike the stiff bad guy boyfriend, and laugh at the Curley Sue lines.
Writer/Director John Hughes covered all bases (as usual) with this bitter-sweet "Sunday Afternoon" family movie.
Fate matches them with a "very pretty" yuppie lawyer, and the rest is predictable.Kids will love this film, as they can relate to the heroine, played by 9 year old Alisan Poter (who went on to be the "you go girl!" of Pepsi commercials).
We may count ourselves lucky that writers/directors like John Hughes are occasionally able to make their creative voices heard.Whenever I notice that I'm watching a film for the third or fourth time and still find it thoroughly satisfying I have to conclude that something about that film is right..
Fred Thompson and Kelly Lynch play good roles as the upper crust and Alison Porter and James Belushi are a interesting fable like duo portraying street wise homeless drifters.
It's impossible not to love the smart and sweet orphan girl who changes the heart of a selfish lawyer only interested in pursuing success in her career.
This is a very optimistic movie and I sincerely believe that we need more films like Curly Sue.
If you can make the leap of faith required to believe that a successful attorney would actually fall in love with a homeless man, then you will enjoy this heart warming film.Jim Belushi does a fair job, either you like his style or you don't.
I found myself drawn into her performance in a way that was quite surprising considering a film of this nature.This movie is billed as a comedy and it was funny enough.
John Hughes brings us another sad tale of a character, who's heart is bigger than her wallet, or her guardian's brain.James Belushi plays a bum.
Curly Sue is a 6 year old with an abundance of hair and a life as a drifter.
But Jim has an on-screen charm that has gotten him very far -- and he has developed it well over the years.Curly Sue is one of his earlier films -- his weight is a giveaway (ain't that true for most of us?) -- and I like the film.
Don't get me wrong, I am all for the three aforementioned keys to a successful film, but I also like a nice, solid tale like this one.And although Belushi and Kelly Lynch deliver excellent performances, the real star of this film is Alisan Porter -- who is absolutely adorable.I don't know what happened to her career, but whoever is responsible for dropping the ball (agent?
Hi everyone my names Larissa I'm 13 years old when i was about 4 years old i watch curly sue and it knocked my socks of i have been watching that movie for a long time in fact about 30 minutes ago i just got done watching it.
Alisan porter is a really good actor and i Love that movie Its so funny when she is dealing the cards.
Every time i watch that movie at the end of it i cry its so said i know I'm only 13 years old but its such a touching story its really weird thats Alisan is 25 years old now.
I'm not sure if he is 16 right now i think he is almost 18 but thats kind of weird when u look at one movie and on the next there about 4 years old then u when they were only 1 in the last.I'm not sure i have a big imagination and i like to revile it.I am kind of a computer person but i like to do a lot of kids things also.
A review about Curly Sue. My daughter, her friends and I have watched this movie literally dozens of times.
I have to agree with Cal-37 it's a great movie, specially for the family, Kelly Linch is beautiful, the little girl is really talented and cute, of course Jim Belushi has earned his strips!
But want I really liked was the piano song, if you're a musician or not watch this movie just for that, you'll know which it is."You're Nobody Till Somebody Loves You" Written by Russ Morgan, Larry Stock, and James CavanaughSo have fun watchingSee ya,Nelson.
Curly Sue is not perfect by all means, but I actually did not see what was so awful about it.I agree the story can be predictable, and the film can be slow at times.
Curly Sue also is beautifully filmed, has a lovely soundtrack and the direction is solid enough.
Alison Porter is very endearing and cute in the title role, while Kelly Lynch is sexy and appealing and James Belushi is very watchable as the bum with a heart, and is also somewhat touching.Overall, has its faults but is both funny and touching.
Not a great film but a great family movie everyone can watch and enjoy, nice and heartwarming and clean dialogue etc..
Although the movie has emotional appealing Curly Stooge Sue striking you totally, she is those girls whose stolen your heart,Jim Belushi is no longer a star ,but in that time he was...Kelly Lynch is kindly and has a convincing performance,John Hughes put in several scenes a small gags that could be unnoticed,so pay attention for every single scene...
Curly sue is a good and cute father-daughter partner film.
This movie is a good and cute father-daughter partner film.I watched the film 3 times on Encore on Demand on Xfinity.
This film is not just for kids or teenagers but also good for adults/parents to watch.
Now for my review: The story:the story is about two con artists conning people to survive and they are father and daughter.so its pretty good.i like it.
Curly sue actress:she is a cute little girl that has curly hair like annie 1982 actress and her voice sounds like Mara Wilson(actress of matilda.she acts like annie actress in 1982 annie sometimes in the.film.
Belushi's style of humor is always pretty fun and his circumstances are not depressing in the least, as a drifter with the lovable, sassy and amusing 9 or 10-year old daughter, the title character who was designed as an updated Shirley Temple.
But in this a gag that occurs several times was his being knocked in the face, the ploy that was first used when the impeccable con artists meet the female lead (Kelly Lynch) who plays a (seemingly) cold, career oriented woman to whom they con a bill of fare off of and she turns out to be very caring, but their relationship is hindered by her snooty, contemptible fiancée (character actor John Getz).
After an impressive catalog of modern-day classics with him at the director's chair, beginning with "Sixteen Candles" (1984) and ending (before this movie) with "Uncle Buck" (1989) and not one bad movie within that list, Hughes didn't quite make his winning streak complete with this film.It's not that "Curly Sue" is a bad film.
It's just a film with a noticeable identity crisis, and it's either that fact or its poor home video distribution over the years that has prevented it from being considered one of the quintessential John Hughes classics.A movie about an precocious, cunning, homeless girl who hones her con-artist skills with the help of her deadbeat father invites itself to comedy.
However, it seems as if Hughes focused more on the homeless aspect of Curly Sue, and the film felt more dramatic than it should have been.That isn't so much the fault of the story as it is with the instrumental main title of the movie, composed by Groeges Delerue with an unforgettable leading clarinet solo.
It just did not have the same kind of balance of comedy and drama that the John Hughes-penned classic "Home Alone" (1990) had, and the previews for "Curly Sue" promised a comedy.Fortunately, Alison Lohman was absolutely adorable as Curly Sue. Whether she was in rags or in skirts bought at Lord & Taylor, she exuded a charisma some adult actors take years to learn.Lohman never utters a catchphrase, but she owned the movie.
How she did not elevate to the same child star status as Macaulay Culkin is beyond me, although she fortunately did not end up like him either.Jim Belushi, as Curly Sue's father, was pretty good, although I could not help but think that he was trying to emulate Bill Murray in this movie more so than any other he has done before and since.
It is to his credit that he never attempted to play any of the kinds of characters his late older brother played, but he could have been more original here too.I also enjoyed Kelly Lynch as Grey Ellison, a strong, independent attorney who ultimately gets conned into taking in Curly Sue and her father.
Lynch plays a female protagonist refreshingly unlike many that populate romantic comedies, and its a character we rarely see in family movies even today.I did take issue with the decisions Grey made with her career as the movie progressed and she grew more fond of Curly Sue. She started out with a lifestyle modern feminists could applaud, only to make an ultimate decision that one could say flies in feminists' faces.There are some other areas in the movie where the main characters perform questionable actions, and the reactions of those around are equally improbable.
"Curly Sue" seems to be pretty obscure compared to many other Hughes films, and I noticed a mediocre rating here, so as much as I've been impressed with most of the other efforts I've seen from the filmmaker, it wouldn't have surprised me if I had found this particular one to be consistently boring throughout.
It did look like that for a while, but eventually, that changed a bit.Curly Sue is an orphaned young girl who has been taken care of by a homeless man named Bill Dancer since she was an infant.
However, very shortly after this scam, Curly Sue and Bill meet Grey again, and this time, she accidentally ends up hitting Bill with her car for real!
Curly Sue and Bill find their lives changing as Grey lets them stay in her apartment, but are still headed for some complications.This movie is a dramedy, which means it has both humour and serious moments.
However, I eventually started finding much of "Curly Sue" to be fairly gripping, thanks to the drama in the film, though the humour continues to fail, and there may be some tedious segments, especially the movie theatre one.
At first, it looked like I was really going to dislike the Grey Ellison character, played by Kelly Lynch, with the scenes showing her on the job, but I found that this character soon changes.John Hughes certainly could have ended his directing career with a better film than this, but if you ask me, this one isn't as bad as its reputation may suggest.
Yes, the humour is usually lacklustre, and the filmmaker was well known for the humour in his movies, plus people have also considered "Curly Sue" to be excessively sentimental and clichéd, and I can understand that, but personally, I still found it heartwarming enough to give it an above average rating.
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!.
Basically the only reason I turned it to nauseating-sounding "Curly Sue" is because I saw that it only had a rating of one-star and I was kind of curious as to why.
Various little situations happened, including Jim Belushi's character and Susan going to some fancy restaraunt with his lawyer girlfriend, who somehow managed to offend them both; a Very Bad man filing a false report of abuse against Jim Belushi's character; a Mean Man pointlessly giving Susan a haircut(this is not even shown and to this second, I still don't know WHICH man it was) and Belushi involved in some ridiculous conflict at a jail, where he is trying to locate a ring.Without giving away the movie, I feel I can say that these various problems amount to absolutely nothing and have nothing to do with the film's ending, which is so predictable I knew what was going to happen the second I turned it there.
To give this silly movie "credit," at least its plotlessness and predictability made it amusing in a *bad* way, but it was still very, very easy to see why critics might give this film one-star..
John Hughes' Curly Sue is the film equivalent to a box of chocolates.
Curly Sue starts out promising, progresses pretty quickly, but there are instances that are questionable and not very necessary.This went on to be Hughes' final film in the director position.
It gets to be much and it shows a grand lack of confidence when a drama needs to throw punches.The plot revolves around Bill Dancer (Belushi) and his pint-sized, precocious accomplice Curly Sue (Porter) who go around conning people to give them money so they can pay for their next meal.
They manage to trick bitter divorce lawyer Grey Ellison (Lynch) by using the same practice, and kindly takes them into her home despite her husband's better wishes.Alisan Porter is perhaps the cutest thing in the film.
He should've reminded himself that sentimental kid comedies were a dime a dozen.Starring: James Belushi, Kelly Lynch, and Alisan Porter.
I love the score it's one of most brilliant pieces of original classical music that no one will ever hear because the movie wasn't any good.
Bill Dancer (Jim Belushi) and Curly Sue are homeless drifters running little scams to get by day to day.
Her cold-hearted fiancée Walker McCormick stops her from doing more despite her falling for little Curly Sue. Later, she actually truly hits him with her car.
Curly Sue. This movie is a harmless, fun and a little bit touching escape like a lot of family themed movies should be.
Not a complicated plot or deep meaning or anything just a movie to forget yourself in while you watch and know that nothing scary will happen and everything will turn out all right in the end.
I thought it would be really bad like anything else I have seen Jim Belushi in but it was more fun to watch than you think at first glance.
Well, I've finally seen Curly Sue, the notorious flop widely considered The Worst John Hughes movie.
I'm not really a fan of Cute Moppet movies and find most child actors irritating.The good news is, I found Alisan Porter to be a much more natural child actress than, for instance, Shirley Temple or the girl who played Annie.
I know it's been said by others, but Curly Sue really is an old-fashioned movie that feels like it should be set during the Great Depression (like Annie and all those Shirley Temple movies were).
(Having a rich and poor person fall in love despite class differences, was another common element in films of the Depression, however unlikely this may seem now.) When Curly Sue was released, this sort of escapist fantasy didn't seem relevant to most viewers, I guess.I enjoy many movies from the 1930s/40s and I love Frank Capra...
Personally I prefer uplifting movies with happy endings and I think more films should be made that the whole family can watch together.
However, I don't love Curly Sue - maybe because I've seen it's familiar elements done in many other movies, and done better.
including other John Hughes films, which I've found more heartwarming and humorous than Curly Sue.
(But it's not The Worst John Hughes Movie either - it's better than Weird Science!) Don't let my rating discourage you, if you're also curious, as a John Hughes fan, or looking for feel-good family films..
I don't think anyone will argue that John Hughes is a modern day film making legend especially for those of us that grew up in the 80's and 90's.
I have always enjoyed Jim Belushi and he has had some great films but he never really became a Hollywood superstar.
She of course as a youngster played Curly Sue in this movie so I wanted to see her in it, now that I know a bit about her as an adult.
She is a very smart little girl but without any education, and can't read or write.The man is James Belushi as Bill Dancer and the girl is Alisan Porter as Curly Sue. Working one of their scams, where Bill gets Sue to hit him on the head with a board, then they find an unsuspecting driver in a parking garage, pretend to get hit by the car, in the hopes of getting a meal and maybe a few dollars.The lady they scam is pretty Kelly Lynch as high-powered lawyer, Grey Ellison.
But a day later exiting her parking garage she in fact does run over him, the two end up at her place where she takes care of them.The arc of the story is to see if this hard-nosed lawyer can soften up by her association with Curly Sue, and to see if Bill can straighten up and get an honest job.I must say I am pleasantly surprised at what a fine young actress Porter was at that very young age.