Max/ine, though at times perceptive (too perceptive, maybe), is also acting out of confusion, in order to please or manipulate his parents, without understanding that he’s doing either. Some of what he does is designed to get his father back into their house. Wanting them to be “a normal family again,” Max/ine gives a cold shoulder to Stephen’s new girlfriend (Amy Huberman, sympathetic, not the usual interloping caricature) and sabotages Vicky’s long-in-coming return to dating. He’s a special kid, but a kid all the same.
Source: latimes.com – Los Angeles Times