I've given my opinions elsewhere on this excellent film, but I'm going to share them (edited) here for those who didn't see that. I couldn't choose "all time favourite" ("Little Women"), but had there been a "second favourite" this film would be in the running.
Let's start with probably the most frequent criticism concerning the central plot. Would an intelligent girl like Dinky really believe that Roxy was her mother on the basis of such scant evidence? The point to note here is that Dinky already believes this at the very start of the film. Facts that she overhears, or gets from conversation with Denton, merely serve to confirm what she already believes. This is one of the selling points of the script for me, if she came to believe during the film it would be much less convincing. Karen Leigh Hopkins clearly knows her subject and is aware that many (most?) adopted children fantasize about the identity of their birth mother. That's just when they don't actually know who she was. These days most countries follow an "open adoption" policy, kids are given the truth... and they still fantisize about their birth parents - even when they can remember the grim reality (Dinky's all black bedroom suggests real trauma in her past)! Not only is the plot plausible, but among adopted children it is positively a cliche. For an adopted girl growing up in Clyde, Ohio "Roxy Carmichael" would be the obvious fantasy figure. What Dinky hears from Denton just helps to make the fantasy take over reality "I didn't know she was so real for you".
Dinky has all the characteristics of a "cared for" or adopted child. She has difficulties forming relationships, failure to make attachments in early life often makes it difficult for such children to make friends. Dinky has absolutely no girlfriends and has transferred all her love on to rescued stray animals. This is again typical in adopted children who find it easier to relate to pets and even toys (like dolls) which can become a surrogate family for them. The feeling of "not fitting" is also a commonplace among adopted children, and parents "Sometimes it feels like we adopted a kid from Mars". Parents and children also wont have the physical resemblance that biological families have. Winona's portrayal of Dinky is absolutely superb in every detail. Her expressions and general behaviour will be only too familiar to anyone with adopted children. Writer, director and actor have produced an amazingly accurate movie that suggests to me either expeience or serious research on their part.
So, with all this seriousness you may well ask "should we laugh at this film"? To which I would say, without a doubt, "yes"! I prefer to see my life as comedy rather than tragedy. We do laugh at all those "barbed-wiring the bedroom" moments, if we didn't... well I'd rather laugh than cry - "laugh at every joke - that's how you fight it". All of the characters are dealt with with some sympathy: the father who does care for her; the mother who realises how little she knows her own daughter ("does Dinky swim?") - it is mom who rips up the prospectus for the special school. Those characters that might be otherwise "too good to be true", like the school counsellor, are softened into reality - she sleeps with the principal.
The film is also a good send-up of our modern cult of celebrity, famous for being famous (or appearing in a song). The ending is redemptive for all the characters, Roxy's failure to turn up gets all of them to think again about their own lives. Dinky's shopping trip even leaves some hope of a new relationship with "Mrs. Bossetti" - perhaps there might be common ground after all.
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