|
|
|
25 years after the events of Chantilly Lace, the girls meet
again to clean out the house of recently deceased matriarch Ruth - all the
girls save for Natalie (JoBeth Williams) of course, who has died in the
earlier movie but serves as narrator here, and Lizzie (Ally Sheedy), who
just couldn't leave home ... and maybe also wasn't too crazy about meeting
her sister Val (Jill Eikenberry). But the others are here, Val, Rheza
(Lindsay Crouse), Shelley (Patricia Richardson), Maggie (Talia Shire),
Hannah (Helen Slater), plus Hannah's 25 year old daughter Nat (Naaji Sky
Adzimah), and they use this first get-together in years to catch up,
reminisce on old times, but also trying to come to grips with ageing and
maybe not having achieved everything they intended to. Over the course of
the year, they would also meet up two more times, once for Rheza's
retirement party, once for Christmas at Hannah's, whee are some serious
topics are brought up, including sexual abuse and dementia - but the more
serious the topic the stronger the bond between our friends grows ... Now
to properly appreciate this movie, it probably helps to have seen Chantilly
Lace first (which I regret to admit I have not), as many events from
that movie are at least alluded to here while other points seem to come
full circle only now. But even without prior knowledge, this film has
quite a bit to offer, including first rate acting, a mostly unsentimental
approach to things, and some hard-hitting plotpoints rather beautifully
embedded in the rather light-footed narrative flow. And a suitably subtle
directorial effort only helps to make this into a very touching movie.
|
|
|