Stepmom

Stepmom is sumptuous, richly filmed, full of the well-being of the upper upper middle class. It's another film that feels like you've seen it before, and yet succeeds in some part because of the casting of superior actors in roles that they have come to epitomize. Susan Sarandon as the righteous earth mother, Julia Roberts as the object of desire, Ed Harris as the flawed but upstanding man--these people are pros. The plot is simple. Kids and mom resent ex-husband's new girlfriend/wife; then mom contracts cancer. Bonding, life lessons, many tears shed in theater. I cried. I cried into my scarf because I didn't have any tissues. Stepmom is excellent tearjerker fare that, to its credit, doesn't assign blame (or is at least equitable in making both mom and stepmom culpable for some bad behavior), but I hated myself for being shamelessly manipulated into crying and left the theater feeling like I had been run over by a truck.