Word: matriarchs
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...matriarch of the family (Judith Malina) is tradition's slave. When she dies, Catherine rids her house of the dark ornaments of Catholicism, deciding to become a middle-class housewife more in tune with the times. The strongest tie is between grandmother and grand-daughter, who have never known each other, but who share a spirit which bypasses the middle-of-the-road Catherine. Teresa reclaims her grandmother's exigent religious fanaticism. But religion liberates Teresa from her present life, instead of tying her down...
...pass through now and then. But they're mostly sketchy figures in suits and uniforms, the sorely afflicted or, like the ferryman, no-accounts who come to stud and go off to do something else. In 1910 the Birches move from Pasquotank to Raleigh, where matriarch Charlie Kate raises her daughter and granddaughter, practices medicine and becomes a Wake County legend: "Remember when she got Tessa Jerrod's arm out of the wringer? . . . Buttercup Spivey's dropped kidneys rose. Malcolm Taylor stopped wanting to scratch his missing leg. Everybody saw the miracles all around...
...first half of the action is dominated by Lois Smith as the family's beleaguered matriarch, a woman whose rambling talk can disarm a felon through sheer boredom. The second half is dominated by Pippa Pearthree as the most successful of the clan's three adult daughters, a lesbian lawyer with a taste for vengeance and violence. There are also plenty of laughs for Alexandra Gersten as a daughter forever finding herself, William Youmans as a good- natured but doltish son-in-law prone to getting beaten up (he does an exquisite ballet of pain...
...better title for Used People might be Used Goods; it's this year's Moonstruck knock-off. The chief difference is that, as written by Todd Graff and directed by Beeban Kidron, this lower- middle-class New York City family is glumly dysfunctional instead of chipperly so. The matriarch is newly widowed Pearl (Shirley MacLaine), and oy, has she got troubles. One of her daughters (Marcia Gay Harden) is developing multiple personalities based on celebrity models. The other (Kathy Bates) is fighting fat and single-mom bitterness. Grandma (Jessica Tandy) is, perhaps sensibly, threatening to move to Florida...
...REVEAL that near the end of Alice McDermott's lyrical novel At Weddings and Wakes, there is a joyous wedding celebration. The bride, an aging ex-nun, allows herself to be swirled by her staid groom, a mailman who unexpectedly proves a sure-footed dancer. Even Momma, the embittered matriarch of the Irish-American Towne clan, permits herself a few sentimental tears. But when the party ends, Momma reminds the Roman Catholic celebrators that they have been "dancing on graves." Four days later, there will be a fresh grave to dig -- that of May, the autumn bride -- and the family...