This was the last "holiday" movie I was going to allow myself to see... don't get me wrong, I love the holidays, especially holiday movies because that is when the studios bring out their big guns. But there is a point where it gets like spending the holidays with your extended family, eventually you want to get out of there. I had already seen the animated movies of the holidays (The Prince of Egypt and A Bugs Life), I had seen the comedy of the holidays (Patch Adams), and I saw the romantic comedy/date movie of the holidays (Shakespeare in Love, although that is more the date movie of the New Year)... now it was time for the tear-jerker of the holidays, Stepmom. I could have picked a better movie to end the holiday season, but I also could have picked a much worse one.
Julia Roberts plays the stepmom Isabel
Most of you probably already now that this movie is about a young woman, Isabel (Julia Roberts, My Best Friends Wedding, Pretty Woman), trying to take care of the children of an older man, Luke (Ed Harris, The Truman Show, Apollo 13). Of course the children, 12 year old Anna (Jena Malone,Contact) and 5 or 6 year old Ben (Liam Aiken,The Object of My Affection), don't really appreciate Isabel's attempts at motherhood because there own mother, Jackie (Susan Surandon,Dead Man Walking,Thelma and Louise), is nearly perfect. That about sums up the first third of the movie or so, but eventually because of her persistance and practice Isabel starts to win the children over, but not Jackie. It is of course a slow process, Ben doesn't really have a problem with her but Anna pretty much hates her and only starts to warm up to her when she realizes that Isabel can be kind of like a big sister to her.
Jackie (Susan Surandon) and her kids (Laim Aiken and Jena Malone) dance the night away
Eventually we learn that this is not going to be a movie that is all laughs at this not-so nuclear families antics when we find out that Jackie has cancer and that Luke has decided he would like to marry Isabel. The later adds tension to this already tension filled family, and the former adds a whole lot of emotion as the kids realize that they may not have a mother for much longer. Pretty much the rest of the movie is Isabel learning to cope and take over Jakies place in Ben and Anna's life and Jackie trying to cope with her life threatening illness.
Jackie and Luke (Ed Harris discuss how thier divorce affects the kids
On paper (or on the screen) the plot really doesn't look like much, and to be honest it isn't. But what the movie lacks in plot it makes up for in emotion, ranging the gauntlet from comedy and happiness to absolute sorrow. This could also be a complaint, but pretty much every scene is filled with very strong emotions which most of the time the movie pulls off briallantly, but every once and a while it slips. There are several times during the film when you are mad at several of the characters because they are being extremely selfish and (pardon my French) bitchy (no sexual stereotypes intended by me, it is just pretty much all of the hostile feelings come from the women in this movie). The other strength of Stepmom is the acting, especially from the children. Julia Roberts and Susan Surandon are good, but I was quite impressed by Jena Malone and Liam Aiken. First off, Aiken is very cute... he had the right ammount of innocence and selfishness/confidence that kids really do have (and believe me I know, I have a cousin about his age), and Malone did a great job of playing a young, teenaged girl... in a word, moodswings... she did the transitions from being sweet and nice to being mean and nasty just like a real teenage girl. All in all, Stepmom had its moments where you wished it was over, and it had its moments where you were really glad you saw it... and yes it is a tearjerker, especially for you moms and dads out there or for someone like me who is just a sucker for kids.
