Steineded How sad is this?

Beanbioca As Good As It Gets

AshUnow This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

Billy Ollie Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

stormhawk2018 I'm not a huge fan of this type of stuff, but I found it not only tolerable, but actually fairly enjoyable. I think what made the movie work were the solid cast , and their decent performances. It's been a while since I saw this, so maybe a re-watch is in order to see if it still holds up.

2karl- Julia Roberts and Susan sarandon and ed harris star in this funny and bittersweet tale and a heartwarming story about the development between two remarkable people. Jackie is divorced with 2 children and has to deal that their father played by ed harris character Luke Harrison who has moved on but likes to help with the two kids Anna and Ben, the two children of Jackie and Luke, have to cope with the fact that their parents divorced and that there is a new woman in their father's life: Isabel, a successful photographer. She does her best to treat the kids in a way that makes them still feel at home when being with their dad, but also loves her work and does not plan to give it up. But Jackie, a full-time mother, regards Isabel's efforts as offensively insufficient.Julia Roberts is brilliant and her role but progresses along effecting Jackie as her 2 kids are left with a career minded who gives rash advice but as the find out about a sudden illness the pair help each other make a as things have being tricky but bringing her role as a photographer brings a perspective to her role a the girlfriend or step mother to her new kids the bring a common goal to their situation and celebrate life as the got the chance to brilliant film nearly 2hrs 7/10 it should have got Oscars for this sad film this is my 79 review

eric262003 "Stepmom" tells the dramatic and forceful tear-laden film in which a New York City advertising photographer named Isabel Kelly (Julia Roberts) has recently been engaged to the much older and recently divorced attorney name Luke Harrison (Ed Harris). Although he is divorced from his ex-wife, Jackie(Susan Sarandon), she still has legal rights to visit her kids, the rebellious Anna (Jena Malone) and the bratty younger son Ben (Liam Aiken). At first glance, we take our sympathies towards Isabel who's trying so hard to win the approval with the rather difficult and exasperating kids and that Jackie seems quite judgemental over Luke's choice of a new fiancé because she's not from the same class system as her. But as the film progresses, we find ourselves taking pity over Jackie who in spite of her obnoxious character and her overbearing poisonous tongue, we discover that she has terminal cancer. Meanwhile the kids seem to adapt to similar behaviour patterns, and Luke just goes on what needs to be done without saying very much. In spite of the ensemble of talented performers, "Stepmom" was cursed by a mundane script and forceful attempt to get the entire audience in tears. The box office success was quite mediocre at best as Susan Sarandon was nominated for a Golden Globe for her performance. I was quite surprised that the Academy Awards neglected this film, since their mindsets are based on films that provide emotional backdrops from the characters. To me in my estimation the demographics of people who'll look up to this movie are likely upper middle-class women in the 30-40 year old age group. Perhaps the Anna Harrison character might attract the adolescent girl demographics especially those who have a divorced or deceased parent and are struggling with adapting to their new parent. The middle-aged parents who are sadly diagnosed with a terminal illness might also find the story intriguing and might have a better understanding of the physical and emotional stages they're going through let alone the hardships of those surrounding them. I might sound like an insensitive jerk, but I really did not feel at ease watching this movie. The acting and the cinematography were the best things going for this movie,but there was a lump in my throat after the final credits rolled. I really thought director Chris Columbus did too much manipulative tactics to force us into one tear-fest after another. The representing of the tear-factor shed very little impact plus there were many scenes that made me feel very uncomfortable. If you thought "Stepmom" was a feel-good movie, what were you thinking? When Isabel learns that Anna's had a nasty break-up with her discourteous boyfriend Brad Kovitsky (Jason Maves), she encourages Anna to inflict verbal abuse towards him by calling him names like limp-dick, while Ben is can be seen giggling at every word that's said. Gee, I thought adults discouraged kids to call others names, not encourage them. Sure Brad may have deserved that, but adults should know better that it's not appropriate behaviour. I was also taken aback by the rich, posh multi-million dollar estate that Jackie was residing in and clichéd of course was the fact that it came with a horse and a horse trail.It made me ponder at just how did a nice charming New York City fashion photographer like Isabel Kelly would ever get romantically involved with a much older, mundane guy like Luke and having to put up with two quite incorrigible children who clearly hate her for the sake of her existence. I also couldn't believe my eyes during the scenes at the school play where all the kids were dressed in perfect Hollywood style costumes and each and every one of their voices sound purely angelic. Didn't they have at least one kid who felt awkward or uncomfortable? That would have been believable. What's also strange was that Anna was six years older than Ben. How the hell are they in the same play? Shouldn't they be in different schools? Okay so maybe the scriptwriter may know the classic song of "Ain't No Mountain High Enough" by Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell, but it makes me wonder how did Anna and Ben seem to know this song quite flawlessly? They were born in 1986 and 1991 respectively several years before this song was ever released. The other thing that bugs me was that the connection they had with this song serves as the unity between them. It also sickens me that they play this song on three occasions. Gaye and Terrell had other songs that weren't about going through get lengths to unite with one another.One a plus note I'm really impressed with the resiliency towards Isabel. I mean surviving through all the ordeals between this very hateful family, deserves a standing ovation. She standing up to the materialistic Jackie and her obnoxious step-daughter without the desires to strangle either one deserves my praises.Overall this is not a horrible film, though I can't really recommend it due to the hateful characters, the uncomfortable atmosphere and the details that make me cringe. We should feel sorry about someone dying, but we can't embody pity because of the venom that comes out of the victim's mouth. I would steer clear from this one.

evanston_dad 1998 gave audiences two major moms dying pictures, one of them "One True Thing" with Meryl Streep and Renee Zellweger and the other "Stepmom." Chris Columbus directed this. There, that's all you need to know. Filmed like a T.V. sitcom but with the content of a Hallmark movie, it's paint by numbers film-making that works overtime trying to wrench tears from its audience. That it does is only because it's about a subject that would make anyone with a half-way functioning heart cry, not because of any skill on Columbus's part.Julia Roberts and especially Susan Sarandon do a fair job of keeping the overly-abundant sentimentality at bay, but they have to fight Columbus every step of the way.Grade: C+