Girl, you'll be a woman soon.

So, on a whim, I rented Ronald F. Maxwell's Little Darlings, purely because the DVD cover looked extremely Parent Trap-esque and I was having a random bout of nostalgia for that film. Little did I know that Little Darlings was a fair bit more adult; whilst it, like The Parent Trap centres around two girls who look quite similar in a Summer camp who initially don't get on, the two girls (15 years of age) soon find themselves in a race to see who can lose their virginities first. Grown up stuff!

Both girls are initially shunned by all the others in their camp. Tatum O'Neal's rich girl is laughed at for her posh attire and bad-ass Kristy McNichol's devil-may-care attitude doesn't sit well with the ringleader of the camp girls, a bit-part model and self-professed woman; she is the only girl in the camp who has had sex, though every other girl there aside from the two protagonists make (not very convincing) claims that they've done the dirty. For Tatum O'Neal's Ferris, she's doing it to fit in, and for Kristy McNichol, it's to show that she can.

Both girls pick their prey. Ferris has found hers in the form of their dishy swimming instructor Gary (Armand Assante) and Angel plays closer to her age bracket with Matt Dillon's motorbike-riding Randy. As both girls get closer to achieving their aim, both become more emotionally invested in the men they've marked out, hence complicating matters.

Although dated, Little Darlings nonetheless has many messages that still hold true to this day and age; the dangers of rushing into sex, and how one must be true to their heart, etc. The latter implies the film has a bit of a "Disney" feel to it, and whilst it is extremely tame compared to modern days teenage flicks where the protagonists swear, smoke and shag blindly, the heavy emphasis placed on the loss of virginity here rendered the film extremely endearing in my eyes. Tatum O Neal and Kristy McNichol are both excellent in their roles - the former making her "rich girl" role suprisingly sweet and likeable, and the latter giving a terrifically convincing portrayal of a young girl who gives a tough exterior to hide her less strong inner self, and Matt Dillon, too, gives one of his softest performances. The banter and misdemeanors that the girls in the camp get up to are hilarious - one sketch involving them trying to procure condoms had me in stitches. All in all, although the film was not at all what I was expecting, it turned out to be much, much better. It's a film about sex, but it is sweet and romantic about it, which, one guesses, is what Ronald F. Maxwell feels losing one's virginity should be like.