NOTFlix It: Stepmom: Movie, DVD Review (2009)

Editor's Note: NOTFlix It is a feature meant to draw attention to older films some readers might have missed, and might consider adding to their Netflix queue, or renting at their local DVD store. Unlike our Netflix It feature, NOTFlix It is designed to keep viewers far away from all the dogs that are out there. The following review of "Stepmom," never published here before, is the original 1999 review. And you definitely should NOTFlix It.



Directed by Chris Columbus, written by Gigi Levangie, Jessie Nelson, Steven Rogers, Karen Leigh Hopkins and Ron Bass, 124 minutes, ated PG-13.

Chris Columbus’ “Stepmom” is the perfect film for those who are content with low entertainment, those who come to films not to see something fresh or new, but to be force fed old ideas and tired clichés as performed by actors who, like dish rags, are absolutely interchangeable.

For others, those with more discerning tastes who prefer substance over trash, “Stepmom” likely will disappoint, particularly since the film wastes a perfect opportunity to explore real issues with step-parenting in the late 1990s.

At its heart--and “Stepmom” wants you to know it has a very big, very warm heart--the film stands as a shining monument to the embarrassingly manipulative, the sickeningly sweet, the hopelessly maudlin. Its sole purpose is not so much to entertain as it is to make you feel something--anything--in a desperate attempt to make you cry.

The film stars Julia Roberts and Susan Sarandon, two women who should have known better than to join forces in such silly, sentimental hog wash. As Isabel, a big city fashion photographer who lives with the very dull Luke (Ed Harris), Roberts must come to terms with the very difficult Jackie (Sarandon), Luke’s former wife whose two very hurt and very confused children predictably dislike Isabel, but who eventually come to love her because, well, that’s how films like this turn out.

The film’s five writers--yes, five were brought on board, all of whom clearly only dropped by to add their favorite clichés to the script--apparently felt compelled to soften Sarandon’s character not by having her work through her jealousy and accept her ex-husband’s new love, but by giving her cancer--yes, cancer--and thus putting her through chemotherapy, which allows us all to watch her suffer.

What fun! It's a terrific learning experience for her, and for the audience.

To Sarandon’s credit, she has her affecting moments, somehow digging deep to make the material work, but the addition of cancer into a story that’s essentially about step-parenting feels so forced and artificially constructed, it ultimately takes away from her performance...while also disrespecting those people actually living with cancer.

“Terms of Endearment” and “One True Thing” never crossed that line, instead allowing cancer into their storylines in ways that seemed natural, something “Stepmom” couldn’t understand because the film itself is so unnatural--the characters, the situations, the settings, the “Reader’s Digest” dialogue.

Pity. In the end, there are no surprises in “Stepmom,” whose hallmark isn’t so much its courage and great glimpses of insight as it is its overwhelming lack of courage and insight. But there is nausea, lots of bubbling nausea, most of which has nothing to do with Sarandon’s chemotherapy.

Grade: D+