Word: mcnicholl
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...American family has weathered the Bunkers and the Louds. It has endured the departures of sweet Kristy McNichol and, after this season, Little House's Melissa Gilbert, and kept another charmer, Marilyn Jones of ABC'S upcoming series King's Crossing, on hold. Can it survive the child as cult object? Now that President Reagan is calling for a return to traditional values, television families should discipline their own children. A few home remedies...
Indeed, one of the many discomfiting things about Only When I Laugh is the contrast between Mason and Kristy McNichol, playing her daughter. The youngster has an ease and grace (and a lovely physical presence) that make her scenes with Mason strictly no contest, and grant the film such warmth and human interest as it contains. Maybe Simon should consider adopting her. -By Richard Schickel
...appearing together in this comedy about sexual discovery at summer camp, McNichol and O'Neal demand that audiences compare them. Both actresses are at a transition point, just past their mid-teens, and both have well-tailored parts. McNichol plays a tomboy on the brink of womanhood-a character patterned after her role of Buddy on TV's Family. O'Neal is a precocious rich girl who seems designed to resemble her public persona as Ryan's daughter. In different ways, each performance is fascinating. McNichol, who has had little big-screen experience (The End), proves...
...Kristy McNichol and Tatum O'Neal, the stars of Little Darlings, have been among the best child actors of their generation, but now they are growing up. Like the Shirley Temples and Margaret O'Briens before them, they have a difficult passage ahead. For some child actors, aging can be a positive process: youthful skills blossom into full-fledged creative maturity. Others are not so fortunate. Aging can also rob child actors of their spontaneity and innocence; yesterday's young performers can all too easily become the mannered actors of tomorrow...
...film's tone is confused and predictable: lame slapstick gags (including the inevitable food fight), sentimental bromides about love, and deadly serious (if inexplicit) sex scenes are thrown together without transitions. Even the heroines' slowly developing friendship is sketchily written; it seems to happen offscreen. While McNichol and O'Neal always command attention, the drama they create has less to do with Little Darlings than with the intriguing vicissitudes of show business careers...