Careful, spoilers****
I was expecting a good mother/daughter drama, but I got another "this-could-have-been-a-better" movie. The set up is there--co-dependent, alcoholic daughter with her manipulative, passive-aggressive mother. The actresses are there: Laura Linney and Gena Rowlands. But the story is not there: as the story is really beginning, it ends.
In one scene, Laura Linney is hemming a bridesmaid dress with her son in it. The scene dragged on so long that I REALLY wanted her to finish that dress. As the bad mother, Rowlands doesn't really do that much to warrant the over-the-top hatred from Linney. You are wanting to know the connection between Linney's husband's suicide and her mother's controlling ways, but it is never fully explained.
The movie is not a total lost as it draws good parallels between Rowland's bridal shop and how many women she has pushed into bad marriages because Rowland wanted money--including her marriage and her daughter's marriage. Also, the scene in which Linney looks for work as a seamstress and clothes designer is painful, but meaningful. Just as "Wild Iris" starts to bloom at the end, it wilts. I wanted to know what happens to Linney's character after she decides to stand up to her mother.
I was expecting a good mother/daughter drama, but I got another "this-could-have-been-a-better" movie. The set up is there--co-dependent, alcoholic daughter with her manipulative, passive-aggressive mother. The actresses are there: Laura Linney and Gena Rowlands. But the story is not there: as the story is really beginning, it ends.
In one scene, Laura Linney is hemming a bridesmaid dress with her son in it. The scene dragged on so long that I REALLY wanted her to finish that dress. As the bad mother, Rowlands doesn't really do that much to warrant the over-the-top hatred from Linney. You are wanting to know the connection between Linney's husband's suicide and her mother's controlling ways, but it is never fully explained.
The movie is not a total lost as it draws good parallels between Rowland's bridal shop and how many women she has pushed into bad marriages because Rowland wanted money--including her marriage and her daughter's marriage. Also, the scene in which Linney looks for work as a seamstress and clothes designer is painful, but meaningful. Just as "Wild Iris" starts to bloom at the end, it wilts. I wanted to know what happens to Linney's character after she decides to stand up to her mother.