Comedian/filmmaker Jan Oxenberg comes to terms with the death of her grandmother, in a so-called 'docu-fantasy' which is easier to recommend than it is to describe. The Borscht Belt humor and odd cardboard (yes, actual cardboard) characters can be a little distracting, but under all the self-indulgent padding and low-budget artifice is an emotional true story taking a unique, personal approach to the universal experience of mortality and grief.
Oxenberg's comic musings on the afterlife owe a lot to Woody Allen, and the over-abundance of voice-over commentary can't help but pale next to the actual biographical footage of the director's dying grandmother. But in the end the film succeeds in providing a lighthearted, but no less thoughtful, look at the common tragedy of a death in the family. Best recurring gag: the satirical jab at psychobabble therapy, with Oxenberg's cardboard alter ego stretched out on the analyst's couch.
