WHEN LIFE FELL APART LOVE FELL INTO PLACE.
After separating from her husband, Birdee Pruitt (Sandra Bullock) moves back to her home town and has no real interest in starting over… but Justin Matisse (Harry Connick, Jr.) is determined to change her mind. The clichés of this script made critics sharpen their knives, and so do I by the time we get to the scene where Bullock, Gena Rowlands and others try to cheer young Mae Whitman up by miming to a golden oldie. Still, the movie does have a romance that is attractively played by the two leads. Lightweight, much like Forest Whitaker’s previous Waiting to Exhale (1995), but likable; the talkshow spoof also hits the target.
1998-U.S. 114 min. Color. Directed by Forest Whitaker. Cast: Sandra Bullock (Birdee Pruitt), Harry Connick, Jr. (Justin Matisse), Gena Rowlands (Ramona Calvert), Mae Whitman, Michael Paré, Cameron Finley. Cameo: Rosanna Arquette.
