Overrated and overhyped

Great Film overall

it is finally so absorbing because it plays like a lyrical road odyssey that’s also a detective story.

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

The film was based on the play, "Colored Eggs," by Daniel Wright. Lauren Holly played a woman with cancer and a past. Faye Dunaway played a cantankerous older woman who also has cancer. The film is based on the cancer unit at a hospital ward. Lauren Holly's character Amber directed an Easter pageant for the children entitled "Colored Eggs." Tom Skerrit played an admirer of Faye's character. There is a strong supporting cast like Edie McClurg as the nurse and Janet Carroll. The film is depressing at times. Faye's character seems to fight the cancer with all she's got. There are touching moments but weird to have wedding in a cemetery. Faye's character likes cemeteries. The hospital must be next to one according to the story. The film is set between the cemetery and the hospital ward.

A few name actors accepted roles in this low-budget, derivative and treacly serio-comedy about the emotions of cancer patients and their loved ones. Holly plays a self-employed beautician who makes wigs for women facing cancer. Soon, she finds herself wearing them as it is revealed that she has her own serious case of the disease. Brooding Somerhalder is a male nurse assigned to care for her during her stay at a rather old hospital. They begrudgingly form a relationship that winds up being mutually beneficial. Dunaway plays a bitter and cranky patient whose radiation treatment creates the need for some of Holly's hairpieces. Meanwhile, Skeritt haunts the hospital, continuously pleading with Dunaway to marry him. McClurg pounds the floor trying to hunt down Dunaway and make her eat her oatmeal in lieu of her more-favored Hershey bars. The cast take turns meandering through a cemetery next to the hospital as they examine their various emotional entanglements. By the end, one person is gone, one is cured and one has been changed forever. Holly actually gives a rather strong performance, injecting a lot of emotion and heart into her role. Dunaway, on the other hand, chews up the scenery and spits it out in virtually every take. It isn't hard to see who was running the show in her scenes (hint: it wasn't the director!) It doesn't help that she's decked out in an atrocious, flipped-out, grey wig for the bulk of the film. At this point in her career, she simply cannot quit gyrating her mouth, rolling her eyes and just generally over-emoting all over the place. Somerhalder does a decent job as well, trying to add some humanity to a thinly drawn character. Skeritt has nothing to do, thus he flounders desperately, trying to create any sort of character out of his plot device of a role. The script is the primary culprit here. It's often unclear, illogical and highly unoriginal. Holly has scenes in a beauty shop that reek of leftover quips and caricatures from another, better play/film. This section plays like "Tin Magnolias". There is a gaggle of uppity, hat-wearing shrews led by Carroll (and including Coolidge, of all people) who appear frequently to comment on the goings on. The hospital is unlike any true establishment of its kind with loads of space, huge rooms, no one around and Christmas wreaths that hang outside right up until Easter! The film is edited with a jigsaw, featuring clear and obvious cuts within scenes and continuity issues. It's a clichéd, predictable, maudlin mess, worthwhile only to fans of Holly who might enjoy seeing her tackle an emotional role or folks who enjoy watching Dunaway camp it up and ham it up excessively only to emerge again near the end dressed up and behaving normally.

If you're in the mood for a good dosage of tears and laughs, "Colored Eggs" finds a perfect balance and delivers powerful performances by Faye Dunaway and Lauren Holly. This is the best Dunaway work I've seen in years and certainly Holly's finest moment in a dramatic role to date. Director Martin Guigui portrays a "Robert Altman" like world of eccentric and soulful behavior, by tastefully utilizing the inevitable pains of facing cancer head on and opening a window full of hope and desire to live each day to the fullest. Edie McClurg is wonderful in her portrayal of the kind hearted Nurse with perpetual intent to help her patients to no avail. The characters of the Baptist women, led by veteran actress Janet Carol, serve up great comic relief. Cool cameos by musicians Earl Scruggs, Randy Scruggs and Rita Coolidge. Artistic cinematography. This is simply a beautiful film.

Lauren Holly and Faye Dunaway are remarkable in this film. Throw in Tom Skerrit and Ian Somerhalder and the rest of the cast and you have a touching story with the right amount of humor. Colored Eggs is an excellent look into the life of cancer patients, reminding us all how precious life really is...