Word: stepmoms
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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There's Something About Mary 26.4 Rush Hour 22.4 Saving Private Ryan 21.7 The Waterboy 21.7 You've Got Mail 19.4 The Truman Show 19.3 Enemy of The State 19.2 Stepmom 18.2 Snake Eyes 16.3 The Matrix...
...believe? Dana Stevens' script buries the compelling story of an athlete's career crisis under a no-fun affair he has with a charmless woman (Kelly Preston--big mistake) and a daughter problem that adds 15 minutes of emotional lard. As domestic drama, it's down there with Stepmom. And much of the jock stuff will look loony to true fans. Costner has complained that his studio cut the film insensitively to get a softer rating, but what's left is nothing to brag about. If the filmmakers were ballplayers, they'd all be put on waivers...
...them with part-time custody. While there are obviously stepmothers who love the role, many other women encounter problems. "You have to learn how to traverse a minefield of emotions--yours, your husband's and the kids'," says therapist Sue Patton Thoele, author of The Courage to Be a Stepmom...
...Winfrey Book of the Month, this is exactly the type of movie skeptics love to criticize. With its metaphorical title and periodic, less than subtle outbursts into sappy soundtrack land, The Deep End of the Ocean could easily have degenerated into a cliched and shamelessly melodramatic style a la Stepmom. But director Ulu Grosbard thankfully manages to avoid melodrama in most (though not all) scenes. This, along with excellent performances by Michelle Pfeiffer and Jonathan Jackson, convert the Deep End into a sophisticated and genuinely touching film which manages to be interesting without the requisite sex or violence scene...
...characters that it tends to meander. Now it's Beth's story, now Vincent's, now Sam's. It has little interest in villainy: the backstory of the kidnapping takes just moments. But in a time when there are few serious family dramas--and when those few, like Stepmom, play it shrill and sticky--the old limitations can look like cardinal virtues...