Manny & Lo (1996)

MANNY & LO (2 outta 5 stars)Not a bad movie... just kind of pointless after all is said and done. Two orphaned sisters (one of them pregnant) take the family car and go on the road, trying to keep from getting separated and put into foster homes. Not knowing what to do about the baby on the way, the two young girls kidnap a woman who works in a maternity goods store and hide out in a secluded cabin in the woods. Eventually the three begin to bond emotionally. This would have been a perfect example of a "nice, family movie" except for all the profanity spewed by the older sister. The younger sister is played by a young Scarlett Johansson... who I think was a better actress at 12 years old than she is right now. (Oh, I'm just being mean... she's not bad now either.) Mary Kay Place plays the kidnapped baby expert. Aleska Palladino (who?) plays the older sister. Pretty entertaining story... it just tends to get a bit implausible at times.

very agressive. very endearing. the story of two girls and a whole lot of trouble. these chicks rock. i find myself watching this film over and over again. fresh and unhiply hip. lock combinations and bathroom equations. fun. overall, this is extremely fun.

This is the sweetest film. It's definitely a 'chick thing' with Manny and Lo and Elaine bonding around an infant to be (Lo's). No men are allowed in this paradise. One appears and he gets bopped over the head, gagged and hog-tied. This is a fem-family made on the run. Lo (Aleska Palladino) in her high teens runs away from a foster home with her younger sister, Manny (Scarlett Johansson). It's a Thelma and Louise crime spree made as a movie for children. Well, not quite. Turns out Lo's pregnant. She has been hiding this from 11-year-old Manny, who has the eye of Sherlock Holmes and is the brains of this team. They find a rather nice, used only during the ski season cabin in the woods and hole up to await the stork. They spot Elaine (Mary Kay Place), a lonely spinster working in a baby clothes shop and kidnap her to help deliver the baby. Everybody, despite gruff exteriors, has a heart of gold, and togetherness and loving concern prevail.And what's wrong with that?Nothing really. But I was thinking: this is the obverse of male war movies where none or few women appear, men doing their manly thing killing one another, women irrelevant. I think that's the key word here for director Lisa Kruege: in the reproductive game that is war by other means, men are irrelevant. Or almost so. In war it doesn't matter how many men are killed. As long as there are some left the population will quickly spring back. Kill the women, though, and you have a serious population problem. Manny and Lo and Elaine prove that you really don't need the male: his sperm will do, and that way you don't have to put up with his loutish behavior.I think I got this right. Anyway, it's a cute movie.(Note: Over 500 of my movie reviews are now available in my book "Cut to the Chaise Lounge or I Can't Believe I Swallowed the Remote!" Get it at Amazon!)

This movie was wonderful. The characters were developed so well I felt as if I knew them. Mary Kay Place was in top form. This movie was unpredictable yet allowed you to come up with your own view as to the future of the characters in the end. This is one of those movies that are a diamond in the rough; a movie that once given a chance, and viewed will be watched by many because of word of mouth. I loved this movie!