Sassy Pants

Sassy Pants (2012)

In a way this is a simple story: a pretty young 18 year old girl growing up in an obsessively sheltered home with her mom tries to finally leave home. Her dad is a loser but a fun guy living across town. The world seems against her, but she rises up little by little.

So what sustains this story, which has few surprises, surprisingly, is the style of acting chosen. Because everything is deliberately campy and excessive. No one is quite real except the girl, played by Ashley Rickards, who is wonderfully real and adorable in the way you'd sort of hope your daughter might turn out. Naturally you are on her side and the rest of the world is an obstacle course. Even the likable dad is a problem because he is a drunk and shows generally bad judgement.

It's the dad's new partner in life who stirs up the movie, but you'll have to see about that yourself. If you get that far. I found the exaggerations all along not quite funny, but just an excuse for some sorry acting. Or an excuse for not having a larger idea of how to fill the movie up. I could see this becoming a cult classic with some fixes here and there.

And with a more interesting plot. With all the bending of norms here, the plot could have survived a few huge and funny and engaging twists. Once you get the style and the general direction of events, it just plods to the end.