Karen Croner Movies

Tina Fey and Paul Rudd star in director Paul Weitz's comedy about an uptight Princeton admissions officer who encounters a teenage prodigy who may be her long-lost son while recruiting students from an alternative high school. Years ago, Portia Nathan (Fey) quietly placed her newborn son up for adoption. Now she's got a great career recruiting students for Princeton University. Then, one day, she receives an unexpected call from her free-spirited college classmate John Pressman (Rudd), who runs an alternative high school that's home to some very gifted students. One such student is Jeremiah (Nat Wolff), whom John believes could be the son that Portia gave up for adoption back in her youth. Meanwhile, as Portia puts her career in jeopardy by altering Jeremiah's transcript, an unexpected romance begins to blossom. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

Carl Franklin directed this family drama adapted from the 1995 novel by former New York Times columnist Anna Quindlen about a young woman who goes back home to take care of her dying mother. In 1987-88, independent Ellen Gulden (Renee Zellweger), a Harvard grad, is working on a New York Magazine investigative article when she hears from her father, George (William Hurt), a literary critic and university professor. He tells Ellen she's needed at home to care for her mother, Kate (Meryl Streep), who's due for surgery. Ellen needs to get away from the problems of her relationship with her boyfriend Jordan (Nicky Katt), but she plans to continue work on the magazine article from home. In truth, Ellen is uncomfortable with her mother's various ladies club lunches, and holiday preparations, and she finds communication with her mother awkward. Once Ellen arrives back home, she's dismayed to find herself caught in the web of her mother's Middle America activities. Ellen's attitude changes when it becomes apparent this probably will be the final Thanksgiving and Christmas with all family members present. But tensions erupt as long-buried family secrets emerge. Locations in New Jersey were used to create the film's Eastern coastal college town. Shown at the 1998 Montreal Film Festival. ~ Bhob Stewart, Rovi