Okay, so the title is ... wrong. It's not about rich kids at all, this movie is about kids dealing with their parents' divorce. And, a little with budding love, age 12.Franny is a 12 year old girl, an only child from an upper middle class, two-income family in New York City, who knows that her parents' marriage is about to fall apart. She's guided by a classmate whose parents already are divorced 3 years earlier, he's new kid at her school. She's mildly precocious, she reads "The Joy of Sex", the illustrated edition, no less, but she's also a topographical nitwit.The two best things about this film are Trini Alvarado's acting and the scenes of New York which depict a dreamy era. It wasn't so innocent a time, Iran hostage crisis, Reaganomics, and a time when police brutality against minorities was worse than now, but we didn't know about it then. But still. This offers a peek into a somewhat magical New York where 12 year olds demand to walk to school alone, because they're well...12 and not babies, where a class of 25-30 pupils goes to do PE with just ONE teacher in Central Park and where kids walk their dogs solo. (To be sure, this is the 'good' part of town, and 2016 crime is actually half now of what it was in the 80s New York City. Of course this is not what it FEELS like these days. There's the socio-economic paradox of 'the less crime there actually is, the unsafer 'people' - read: whites - .... FEEL'........I digress.)The movie is dated in the displayed attitudes towards women, Jamies mother doesn't care if her 12 year old SON "screws the brains out" of a 12 year old girl (!), which points to severe unbalance: boys can do what they want, but girls are floozies. Also, there's like 5 gratitutous (and unflattering) shots of Alvarado's butt. That seems a bit unfriendly. The dated attitude towards gays which we see in the vehement denial of Franny that her father might be gay. Nowadays it would come with an obligatory addition of "It would be okay if he was, of course". Not so much in 1979.8 oth 10, The Melancholic Alcoholic.

Rich Kids is a wonderful movie, in so many ways. It depicts a time (the late 70's), a class, New York City, and divorce (which was then becoming a social phenomena) perfectly. However, the main reason to watch this film may very well be to see the then adolescent Trini Alvarado at her best.The Cast is full of great actors, including John Lithgow and Canada's own Roberta Maxwell, but the standout is Alvarado. Her guileless and tender performance is so brilliant that one is almost hypnotized. Alvarado plays Franny as your typical adolescent girl - curious, too smart for her own good, a little daring - but lets her own qualities poke through, and makes her Franny seem somewhat frail, potentially tragic.There is always a sense that Franny will crumble under the weight of bad news (like the announcement of her parents divorce), and in some scenes this sense fills the room. The other actors are electrified by this, and give wonderful performances. The scene in the Chinese restaurant - when Franny's parents finally break the news - is heart-breaking...and a little funny.This is one of two Alvarado movies that are absolute Must See's. The other is Times Square, in which Alvarado once again plays a variation of the seemingly-emotionally-frail poor little rich girl. Once one sees both these movies, one realizes what a rare quality Alvarado had at the time. The only actress to compare is a young Sarah Jessica Parker, but by the time Parker was an adolescent she was too much of a board-trodding, song-belting, Broadway-trouper type to be able to let go and open herself up the way Alvarado could.Watch Rich Kids with this in mind: you are watching a brilliant, unencumbered, child actor at work. Pure acting from an adult is rare enough, but from a child actor, it is priceless.

Franny is 12 years old. She, unknowingly, is the glue that keeps her parents together. When she starts keeping tabs on her Dad, however, she begins to unravel the thread that we all dread, Mom and Dad aren't too happy with one another and they are not being honest with their little girl about it. So she starts learning about divorce from a new boy in school who has recently been through it. She realizes that kids have a maturity level that parents never will achieve. Thus said, the parents embark on an all out search for their daughter amidst the crazy world of a rich kid who has everything. His Dad lives in the most idyllic bachelor pad and doesn't dote on him, his mother is happily married to a psychiatrist cause she doesn't have to pay for the sessions. Ahhh the pleasures of divorce. Franny comes full circle with the acknowledgement of her fighting parents and that it's not her fault and they will love her no matter what. If you are a Robert Altman fan then this film is for you. If you like a good family film with a great score then this is for you. I saw it in the theaters in 1979 and have since loved it on every viewing. I wish this movie was on DVD, but for the time being look for it on Showtime or Encore in WS.

Who can not like John Lithgow even when he is an adulterer? But that isn't the main theme of this movie. Kids dealing with divorce in a very touching way is the real story here. I saw this when it was released and was so struck by it I went back and saw it again the next day. In Lawton, Oklahoma, no less. Not my fault, I was in the Army stationed there at Ft. Sill. Years later I got a copy of the VHS and watched it again. Trini Alvarado is just excellent in this. It is what a movie should be, a thoughtful look into people's lives, with the plus of beautiful cine of NYC. Being from the wide open spaces, the whole NYC thing is pretty fascinating to me. Anyway, this is a really good movie that stands up pretty good over lo, these many years.