Alfred Uhry Movies

The final installment of what might be called Bruce Beresford's southern trilogy (the other films being Crimes of the Heart and Driving Miss Daisy) examines a disintegrating Southern family. The Odom family live in an elegant mansion, where Warren (Albert Finney) is retired and spends the days puttering around the house. One day, his daughter, a high school honor student named Lucille (Kathryn Erbe) finds a letter written by her mother Helen (Jill Clayburgh) declaring her intentions of leaving the family. Quickly re-writing the letter to remove the harsh words, she finishes it just in time for Warren to read it. Warren is crestfallen at the news of Helen's departure, telling her, "Lucille, I feel knocked off my perch about this." Warren descents into a depression as she and Warren await the return of Helen. After it becomes apparent Helen is not returning, Lucille drops out of high school to care for the home and her father, while Warren strikes up a relationship with available widow Vera Delmage (Piper Laurie). But then Lucille's no-nonsense older sister, Rae (Suzy Amis) arrives with her husband Billy McQueen (Kyle MacLachlan). Rae is pregnant and announces her intention of staying for awhile. ~ Paul Brenner, Rovi

Three teenagers learn a lot about life and love one summer in this romantic comedy-drama. Kat (Annabeth Gish), Daisy (Julia Roberts), and Jojo (Lili Taylor) are three working-class women just out of high school who have jobs at the same pizza parlor in the resort community of Mystic, Connecticut. Kat wants to study astronomy at Yale; when she starts baby-sitting for Tim (William R. Moses), a wealthy Yale graduate summering in Mystic, she finds herself falling in love with him, even though he's married and nearly twice her age. Daisy, who isn't sure what she wants from life, starts going with Charlie (Adam Storke), a recent law school dropout, though she starts to think that it may be more to rebel against her family than out of genuine affection. And Jojo is attracted to Bill (Vincent D'Onofrio), but she doesn't want to get married (she's already left him at the altar once); when Bill announces that he's no longer willing to have sex without marriage, she has to decide if his affections are worth a lifetime commitment. Conchata Ferrell appears in a supporting role as Leona, the proprietor of the pizza parlor, who zealously guards the secret formula of her sauce. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi