Big Girls Don't Cry... They Get Even

Big Girls Don't Cry… They Get Even (titled Stepkids in early promotional trailers and in Australia) is a 1992 American comedy film directed by Joan Micklin Silver. Plot 15-year-old Laura Chartoff is a girl in a large dysfunctional family. After her parents' divorce, her father, David, a flaky artist, has now accumulated three ex-wives, a 4-year-old daughter, Jessie (with fourth wife Barbara, one of the wives Laura actually liked), and is living with Stephanie – who is pregnant with his twins. Laura's mother, Melinda, had her own two-day marriage and is now married to her third husband, Keith Powers. Keith is a successful and seemingly selfish businessman and a widower with three kids of his own – resentful adult son Josh, self-obsessed teenage daughter Corinne (who bonds with her similarly shallow stepmother), and teenage son Kurt, who seems to be Keith's favorite, as he does whatever he tells him to do and as a result adopts a rather militaristic personality and is away from military school. With Melinda also picking Corrine as her favorite, this leaves Laura unintentionally shut out. Added to the mix of siblings and stepsiblings is Laura's half-brother, 10-year-old genius Sam, the result of an unexpected pregnancy for Melinda and Keith. Josh visits his mother's grave on the anniversary of her death and then confronts Keith for forgetting the date. Later, Laura gets in trouble with Keith for talking with Josh. Having felt incredibly hurt by her family, Laura decides to run away, going to see Josh at his lakeside cabin. And for a time, Laura's actually relaxed and happy spending time with someone who enjoys her company. Josh, however, attempts to reach out to one of Laura's family members without her knowing. Keith deduces that Laura will be with Josh ("brats of a feather"). But when the family arrives at the cabin, Laura concludes that Josh betrayed her trust and runs away.