Word: opalized
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...course, life is never quite that simple and Dottie Ingels, played by Julie Kavner, experiences all the pitfalls of show business cum motherhood. First, her dream of stardom--which is shared by her two daughters, Erica and Opal--seems to bear little relation to reality...
While Dottie hits the comedy club circuit in Manhattan, Erica and Opal predictably struggle to adjust to their new surroundings. As Dottie enjoys her new life, the girls revel in their mother's success on stage and at the same time feel awed and threatened by her accomplishments...
Dottie's rise to stardom and her mounting family problems come to a head when she is booked at a renowned comedy club in Los Angeles. Erica and Opal must stay behind in the care of Dottie's aspiring comedian friends. Meanwhile, Dottie begins to appear on national TV in interviews. As her stay in LA lengthens, her daughters see more of Dottie on TV than they do in real life...
Even a visit to their mother in Las Vegas cannot stem the girls' growing resentment and pain at their mother's absence. To add to the turmoil, Erica and Opal discover their mother's burgeoning relationship with "the Moss," the term they use to derisively refer to their mother's agent...
...confident movie -- Nora Ephron's first as a director -- is that it never turns into a single act. Even the minor characters are sharply written. Dottie's kids are fully her equals in its structure, always giving as good as they get. Erica's the silent, watchful one. Little Opal's the pert mistress of the wise-child zinger. In fact, the film's two best passages belong to them. When Erica takes as her first lover the squarest boy in school (that'll show Mom), their struggle with the logistics of lovemaking is a fresh, sweetly hilarious exploration...