96 min., 1994
Directed by Yves Simoneau
My rating: 
IMDB • Netflix
Flawed, but watchable.
* * *
Jude Madigan (Jamie Lee Curtis) only wants one thing – to have her family back. Sure, she left three years ago. But now that she’s done abandoning them, she’s ready to be a wife and mother again. Never mind that her ex-husband Robert (Peter Gallagher) has a new girlfriend. This is her family dammit – and she will get them back. A mother’s love is fierce.
This really felt far too much like a made-for-TV affair, even with great acting. Apparently this was based on a novel, and it shows a lot. It never feels like a fluid story, so much as someone just giving a choppy re-cap of what happened in the book. With the addition of completely inappropriate jump-scares that have no relevance to the plot at all, what should be a good movie hovers just above the line of hot mess.
Jamie Lee Curtis sports a very severe blond haircut that really helps convey the tightly wound psychopath lurking underneath. She is ice cold and at times downright terrifying. If this is how she loves her boys – what the hell will happen when you piss her off? Peter Gallagher hovers around the sidelines, barely existing. The focus was so much on Jude that you never really get a sense of who Robert is – he is nothing more than a tool to try and tell a story. Luke Edwards as the oldest son Kes does an incredible job, being that he was a child at the time. He has quite expressive eyes and he expertly copies Curtis’ demeanor with precision. Joanne Whalley as Robert’s girlfriend Callie is a little to washed out for my taste, though she does deliver a decent performance. The focus was on sainting her a bit too much and she gets lost amidst all the girl-next-door “charm” she’s supposed to have.
There is really nothing important that can be said about this movie. Besides a half-developed script that could have been amazing, everything else is mediocre. It sparks no feeling in me whatsoever, I don’t even care enough to hate it. (Ok, I’m mildly disappointed.) See it. Or not. This is another sad entry under forgettable, almost good enough to like movies.
