Stepmom [1998] [1999]

Director Chris Columbus, who is adept at showing familial chaos (he directed Mrs. Doubtfire and Home Alone) with a sanitised minimum of lingering emotional damage, actually manages to dig a trifle deeper than usual in exploring the jealousy and hurt that occur when the baton is passed between a birth mom and the younger wife who steps into her shoes. Stepmom fortunately manages to touch on that chord--showing how an ambitious woman might feel hampered by having to face the responsibility of children just because she's fallen in love with their dad--as well as the haunting grief that it causes their birth mum. It's an issue that haunts millions of second wives everywhere, and while Roberts conveys the confusion of being taken for granted in the melee that follows, it's Sarandon who walks off with the film. She's relentless in her fury, and everyone else in the film--the generally excellent Harris included--is sideswiped. It's just a shame that Hollywood once again wimps out in the end, solving the problem by giving Sarandon a terminal illness. Instead of allowing Jackie and Isabel's relationship to unfold on something less than a high note, the movie has to quell its best thing with a false payoff because it doesn't know what to do with real life. --Paula Nechak

Their stepmother (Julia Roberts) "can have their future", their natural mother (Susan Sarandon) "can have their past.

This is a story of rivals learning to live alongside each other; against the odds.


Stepmom-A Reveiw   November 27, 2004
11 out of 15 found this review helpful

Stepmom- A Review

This film is one of the most amazing films I have ever seen. It is a tale of self-discovery and courage between to completely different women as they travel through their lives apart and together. It stars award-winning actors and pushes them to the best of their abilities in numerous ways.

Julia Roberts plays Isabel, the new, younger woman. Susan Sarandon plays Jackie, the ex-wife. Isabel has not got a clue how to look after kids. Jackie is the perfect mom. The kids, Anna and Ben, hate Isabel because their mum hates her. For example, Jackie won't allow Isabel to take Anna to a concert on a school night but then takes her herself. Their dad, Luke, just wants them to get along. Anna and Isabel finally connect when Isabel gives her advice for an especially unpleasant boy. When Jackie discovers she is fatally ill, Isabel is the first to find out accidentally. The two have a heart-rending heart-to-heart, which is impossible to keep a dry eye. They admit everything, which has been hurting them from each other and their greatest fears about their continued lives. Isabel says that she fears that when she is helping Anna on her wedding day, all she will be thinking is "I wish mom was here". Jackie says her worst fear is that she won't.

This shows the talent, which these two actors have inside as they sit in that dingy bar, on opposite sides of a table, pouring out their souls. The script is marvellous but the acting and the direction is outstanding but a bad actor could mess all of that up. The example that I gave earlier just sums up this wondrous film. Ed Harris (Luke) also portrays the father of the kids brilliantly, as he reasons with them and tries to make them see sense. This film will make you laugh. It will make you cry. It will make you sympathise. It will make you dislike. But most of all, it will make you want to be around people forever. This film shows how wrong you can be about people and how easy it is to follow examples and get someone who is trying to do their best for you so completely wrong. this is undoubtatbly The Best sad film EVER