Teri Garr was exceptional in this movie. She had to be because I so loathed her character. Only a good actor/actress can make you loathe a loathsome character.
Wendy (Garr) was so superiorly weak and pathetic as both a mother and a girlfriend. She exuded insecurity and it manifested itself in the form of her sons walking all over her and eventually her boyfriend, Sam (Peter Weller), doing the same.
Wendy suffered from a dangerous emotional state called loneliness. Loneliness can cause a person to resort to all types of harmful activities. One such harmful activity is taking on a no-good boyfriend. Loneliness tends to cloud the judgment so that you can't properly see the glaring character flaws in a chosen mate.
Wendy's two sons saw the flaws, but that's a judgment that also may be skewed. Sam wasn't the boys' father which usually automatically makes him disliked. True, there may have been a tinge of resentment toward Sam because he wasn't their father, but Sam didn't help the matter by being a jerk.
As I'm saying that it needs to be noted that the kids weren't angels either. As a wise Bay Area sports radio host used to say, "Two things can be equally true." The boyfriend could be a jerk while the kids could also be spoiled brats. The two together are a very caustic mix.
Those were your elements to this feeble movie. You had a lonely and insecure mother, two bratty kids (especially the younger one), and a drug dealing jerk of a boyfriend.
"May I have another option Alex?"
Given these choices and a weak story to go with it, I wasn't moved.
What did we really have? Two kids with divorced parents and a mom with a boyfriend that was a bad influence. In other words, two kids that were similar to 30%, or more, of kids in America. Their situation wasn't ideal, but it wasn't tragic either. Speaking as a son that had divorced parents and saw various spouses this movie still didn't jibe with me. Wake me up when there's a real tragedy.
Wendy (Garr) was so superiorly weak and pathetic as both a mother and a girlfriend. She exuded insecurity and it manifested itself in the form of her sons walking all over her and eventually her boyfriend, Sam (Peter Weller), doing the same.
Wendy suffered from a dangerous emotional state called loneliness. Loneliness can cause a person to resort to all types of harmful activities. One such harmful activity is taking on a no-good boyfriend. Loneliness tends to cloud the judgment so that you can't properly see the glaring character flaws in a chosen mate.
Wendy's two sons saw the flaws, but that's a judgment that also may be skewed. Sam wasn't the boys' father which usually automatically makes him disliked. True, there may have been a tinge of resentment toward Sam because he wasn't their father, but Sam didn't help the matter by being a jerk.
As I'm saying that it needs to be noted that the kids weren't angels either. As a wise Bay Area sports radio host used to say, "Two things can be equally true." The boyfriend could be a jerk while the kids could also be spoiled brats. The two together are a very caustic mix.
Those were your elements to this feeble movie. You had a lonely and insecure mother, two bratty kids (especially the younger one), and a drug dealing jerk of a boyfriend.
"May I have another option Alex?"
Given these choices and a weak story to go with it, I wasn't moved.
What did we really have? Two kids with divorced parents and a mom with a boyfriend that was a bad influence. In other words, two kids that were similar to 30%, or more, of kids in America. Their situation wasn't ideal, but it wasn't tragic either. Speaking as a son that had divorced parents and saw various spouses this movie still didn't jibe with me. Wake me up when there's a real tragedy.