I just gave it a straight ten, this film totally surprised and charmed me. It completely avoids any cliché that seems to perpetuate in so many girls films. In this film girls are so refreshingly _not_ the little self - centered gigglers whose main and only subject are boys, and main plot is _not_ around petty fight that two of them had.
There are some deep and challenging events for kids at that age in the plot, and yet the movie is never a *drama*. It is represented the way kids handle it - just like you rarely see a kid just blocked - they accept and move on. It may appear light hearted, an it is in a way, but that is because it remains true to that particular perspective - kids cope with certain events, ups or downs, better than the adults do (obviously, not talking about extremes now).
Another point that I loved about the movie is that I have miserably failed whenever I thought that I had a particular character all figured out. I didn't. I loved the Valerie Mahaffey performance - brilliant. Girls as well.
