BEFORE: And we're hit with yet ANOTHER snowstorm. I think the most idiotic thing about the snow these days, besides giving snow storms names, like they're hurricanes or something, is that fact that ALL of the local NY channels suspend their regular programming to send reporters out in parkas every time there's more than 2 inches of snow. I really question their judgment in working outside while at the same time telling everyone else to stay home and stay warm. No lie, this morning I watched a reporter interview a DOG that was being walked during the storm. She asked the dog how he was doing, and I swear she seemed like she was expecting a constructive answer. My point is, they've got nothing to report, so why suspend my game shows and daytime dramas? Didn't we all learn from 9/11 that after any emergency we've got to get back to our normal lives, and that includes daytime TV?
Linking from "Sex, Lies, and Videotape", James Spader was also in "White Palace" with Susan Sarandon (last seen in "Little Women").
THE PLOT: A mother and daughter search for success in Beverly Hills.
AFTER: In retrospect this might not have been the best choice for the romance chain, since it's largely a straight drama about a mother-daughter relationship. This would have been a better choice for Mother's Day, but the judges have ruled that there is some dating in the film, so its position stands. On with the countdown.
In this film a mother leaves her second (?) husband in Michigan and drives her daughter out to Beverly Hills for another case of "fake it 'till you make it". She's got ambitions to be a teacher in a greay school district and for her daughter to be an actress, but she's also interested in marrying up. So she flirts with hunky orthodontists on the beach (just think of how much she'd save, if only her daughter needed braces!) and in so doing, calls to mind a modern-day Holly Golightly, if Holly were a single mom. So maybe that's how this film DOES tie in.
I wondered if this was based on the life of Brooke Shields, though I suppose it could be the story of many a child actress with an overbearing stage mom. I know Brooke Shields went to Princeton, and the daughter character here wants to attend Brown University, but that's still a big coincidence. Though I suppose the difference lies in the fact that Shields was a successful child actress, and this character is a mere wannabe.
I suppose this has some value as a character study, but apart from that it seemed pretty pointless.
NITPICK POINT: If they needed money for the daughter to attend school, or just to live on, why wasn't contacting her father for child support an option? They made reference to the fact that he had some money, but without giving a specific reason for not hitting him up for cash, it ends up feeling like they just never thought of it. Which they must have done at some point.
NITPICK POINT: When characters in Beverly Hills want to watch the sun rise, they probably wouldn't go to the beach. Because the sun rises in the east, so that's where you'd go to watch the sun SET over the water. Damn, that one almost slipped by me.
Also starring Natalie Portman (last seen in "Cold Mountain"), Shawn Hatosy, Paul Guilfoyle (last seen in "3 Men and a Baby"), John Diehl, Bonnie Bedelia (last seen in "Speechless"), with cameos from Megan Mullally (last heard in "Bee Movie"), John Carroll Lynch (last seen in "Zodiac"), Rick Hurst, Thora Birch.
RATING: 4 out of 10 grunions
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