Pretty Good

Clever and entertaining enough to recommend even to members of the 1%

All that we are seeing on the screen is happening with real people, real action sequences in the background, forcing the eye to watch as if we were there.

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

We're used to Meryl Streep being brilliant in films. She's probably the preeminent actress of our time. But here (as the mother with cancer) she is upstaged a bit by a wonderful performance by Renée Zellweger. I think what stands out about Zellweger's performance is that it isn't movie-real...it's real-life real. I've seen her in some other flicks and she was good, but here she was stupendous.In terms of the other actors, William Hurt turns in a fine performance as the husband. Tom Everett Scott is fine as the son/brother, as is Nicky Katt as the boyfriend.This is what I generally refer to as an absorbing drama. A mother has cancer. Her husband, a college professor, convinces the daughter to come home from her job as a magazine feature writer in New York City, while the father doesn't fulfill his own responsibilities. The daughter is left to be nurse maid and run the house, while dad simply goes about his everyday life...including having flings with a few students (although this is mostly implied). The mother eventually succumbs, with an autopsy showing the cause of death as an overdose of morpheme. Throughout the film a detective is questioning -- though not accusing -- the daughter about the events leading up to the death. However, this is not a mystery. The detective is just a means by the author/director to tell the story of the life the family was experiencing. This is heart warming in spots, incredibly sad in spots, and just life in other spots...in other words, real life.Highly recommended for the serious film-goer.

In between the zombies and disasters I watched yesterday, I took time out for this family drama starring Meryl Streep, Renee Zellweger, and William Hurt.Streep got all the award nominations, including one for an Oscar, but I felt that Zellweger gave a much better performance. The movie was really all about her character, who has to return home to care for a dying mother. In the process, she learns some new things about her parents that weren't obvious when she was growing up.I enjoyed this film as it brings up issues that many of us will have to face or are facing. Do we put our lives on hold to care for our parents, as Ellen did? Is it right that George goes on doing things the same, even if it is his daughter now taking care of things? Was it right that Kate lived her life the way she did anyway? This is a good film about families and Zellweger was great.

Be prepared for a film that deals with parental dying and death and looks closely at how one family handles the ordeal. Meryl Streep gives one of her most outstanding performances as Kate Gulden, the dying wife of a National Book Award-winning professor of English George Gulden (William Hurt) and uber mother of Ellen (Renee Zellweger) and Brian (Tom Everett Scott). The story is from the viewpoint of Ellen, who must bear the brunt of caring for her mother (and father) while coming to terms with the father she once adored.Renee Zellweger gives a great performance as the ambitious magazine writer torn between her desire to advance her career, and her father's need for her to care for her mother as her death approaches. William Hurt does a great job playing the self-absorbed academic who tries to keep his life going as smoothly as when his wife was well.This movie offers an very real portrayal of the forces and dynamics that shape the relationships of a family and community during a time of hardship and ending. I highly recommend this film.

My comments may contain some SPOILERS so consider carefully whether you should read them if you have not seen the movie. George Gulden (William Hurt) is a literary professor and author, very disciplined, his wife (Meryl Streep) is not so intellectual, the daughter (Renee Zellweger) forms a closer bond with her father, the son with the mother. Even as a small child, while driving with the family, mother says 'look at those small cows.' Daughter answers, 'they are called calves', to set the tone for the daughter's disdain for her mother's limitations. The daughter grows up a Harvard graduate and a very aggressive investigative reporter in NYC. A visit home, it is clear daughter still worships dad, seeks his writing advice, but minimizes interaction with mom, who is still mom. Then the news, advanced inoperable cancer, mom is dying, dad matter of factly tells daughter she has to quit her job and move home to take care of mom. Reluctantly she does, through a series of incidents gets to know mom and what a beautiful person she is inside, at the same time finding out things about dad that shatter some of her hero worship. Part of the theme is to learn to accept the faults of others, as mom had done with dad, and now daughter has to do with both mom and dad. Near the end, dad tells daughter after mom's funeral, 'I loved your mother, she was my one true thing." Thus the title of the movie.Superb drama, with some of the best actors of our time.