How families fall apart and mend themselves is the point of this star-laden 1996 movie, but stage and TV director Jerry Zaks, screenwriter Scott McPherson, and a trio of fine performances transcend the formulaic aspects to come up with something more resonant. Based on a play by McPherson before he succumbed to AIDS, the semi-autobiographical plot focuses on two estranged, middle-aged sisters. In Florida, mousey spinster Bessie has spent twenty years as caretaker to their ailing father Marvin and their eccentric aunt Ruth. In Ohio, Lee escaped family responsibility to get married and raise two sons in Ohio only to see things fall apart. Lee is on the verge of turning her life around as a licensed cosmetologist when Bessie is diagnosed with leukemia and reaches out to Lee and her sons as potential bone-marrow transplant candidates.
The rest of the movie is mainly about how the sisters cope with each other when they reunite and what they do to deal with the inevitable. Intriguingly, while the soap opera elements are strictly by-the-numbers, there is a persistent undercurrent of black comedy that effectively blunts the potential sentimentality of the piece. It also helps that Meryl Streep and Diane Keaton play the sisters. As the embittered, guilt-ridden Lee, Streep moves easily back into blue-collar, Silkwood territory, and she unapologetically shows the edginess and jealousy of her self-centered character. However, it's a vanity-free Keaton who really radiates as Bessie finding inner strength and contentment under increasingly dire circumstances. A year before "Titanic", Leonardo di Caprio effectively plays the last of his juvenile hellions as Lee's oldest son Hank, a textbook example of teenaged, pyromaniac angst.
The rest of the cast is fine in limited turns - Robert DeNiro (one of the producers as well) as the bumbling Dr. Wally; Dan Hedaya as his even more pixilated brother Bob; Gwen Verdon as wild-eyed, soap opera-obsessed Aunt Ruth; Hal Scardino as Hank's self-controlled little brother Charlie; and Hume Cronyn, who is forced to play Marvin with severely limited expression. There are predictable moments throughout, but some surprise and a few actually enthrall, including a seriocomic scene of quiet reconciliation when Bessie recalls the drowning death of her open-mouthed carny boyfriend. There are no extras with the 1999 DVD release.
The rest of the movie is mainly about how the sisters cope with each other when they reunite and what they do to deal with the inevitable. Intriguingly, while the soap opera elements are strictly by-the-numbers, there is a persistent undercurrent of black comedy that effectively blunts the potential sentimentality of the piece. It also helps that Meryl Streep and Diane Keaton play the sisters. As the embittered, guilt-ridden Lee, Streep moves easily back into blue-collar, Silkwood territory, and she unapologetically shows the edginess and jealousy of her self-centered character. However, it's a vanity-free Keaton who really radiates as Bessie finding inner strength and contentment under increasingly dire circumstances. A year before "Titanic", Leonardo di Caprio effectively plays the last of his juvenile hellions as Lee's oldest son Hank, a textbook example of teenaged, pyromaniac angst.
The rest of the cast is fine in limited turns - Robert DeNiro (one of the producers as well) as the bumbling Dr. Wally; Dan Hedaya as his even more pixilated brother Bob; Gwen Verdon as wild-eyed, soap opera-obsessed Aunt Ruth; Hal Scardino as Hank's self-controlled little brother Charlie; and Hume Cronyn, who is forced to play Marvin with severely limited expression. There are predictable moments throughout, but some surprise and a few actually enthrall, including a seriocomic scene of quiet reconciliation when Bessie recalls the drowning death of her open-mouthed carny boyfriend. There are no extras with the 1999 DVD release.