# Stepmom (1998)

### reviewed by
Geoff Berkshire

    Stepmom (1998)

Columbia Pictures; PG-13; 125 minutes

    Director: Chris Columbus

Cast: Susan Sarandon, Julia Roberts, Ed Harris, Jena Malone, Liam Aiken, Lynn Whitfield, Mary Louise Wilson.

    Review By: Geoff Berkshire

    Star Rating: **1/2 (out of ****)

Susan Sarandon, one of Hollywood's most respected actresses, and Julia Roberts, one of Hollywood's most successful actresses, team up for the Christmas 1998 release Stepmom. They play, as the trailers put it, "two women who share one family." Unfortunately, the interesting combination is wasted by dropping all opportunities for originality in favor of run-of-the-mill melodrama.

Sarandon is Jackie, a former editor for Random House, who has been divorced from Luke (Ed Harris) for several years now. They share custody of their children: the very mature, 12 year old, Anna (Jena Malone) and magic fanatic Ben (Liam Aiken). Complicating matters is Luke's live-in girlfriend, Isabel (Roberts).

At the outset, Stepmom appears to be about the conflict that will develop between these two women and how it effects Luke and the children as they are pulled into it. This would give the film a very good possibility to explore an issue that is widespread in life today but frequently ignored by Hollywood films. It would also seem to offer a nice alternative to a film like The Parent Trap (1998) by showing how divorce can happen and everyone in the family can still be happy.

Unfortunately, Stepmom has a whole other agenda. By the end, the film turns into a routine and melodramatic tearjerker. It is revealed that Jackie has cancer and this comes off as an easy out for the problems presented (and a blatant attempt to make the audience cry). In its last third the film invites comparisons to One True Thing (1998) but pales next to that more mature picture.

While the story falters, the acting helps to save Stepmom from becoming a complete disaster. Sarandon doesn't exactly deliver one of her finest performances but she is more than adequate. While her character is hard to warm up to at first (she has a great house, the potential for a great job, she sees her kids all the time and her only "problem" is that her ex-husband has fallen in love again...), the disease is revealed after the first half hour. While this weakens the story it gives Sarandon more to play with and she dives right into it. Her performance overall is a bit of a disappointment considering who she is and how much she did with so little in Twilight (1998), earlier in the year.

Roberts, on the other hand, is quite a revelation. This is certainly her finest performance since her starmaking turn in Pretty Woman (1990). Her dialogue delivery in certain scenes is priceless (a key example being an exchange between Isabel and Anna after school one day). This is helped, no doubt, by some of that dialogue having been written specifically for her by her favorite screenwriter, Ron Bass. (Bass is one of five credited screenwriters, the others being Gigi Levangie, who also gets story credit, and the team of Jessie Nelson, Steven Rogers and Karen Leigh Hopkins.) She also holds her own up against the formidable Sarandon, does a great job with the kids and builds a believable romantic chemistry with Harris. I found myself wishing her character was transported into a better story.

Harris has limited screen time but is a welcome presence. As the children, Malone and Aiken are each used in a different way. Malone (who made her mark in the shattering child abuse drama Bastard Out of Carolina) is a powerful little actress and she has a tendency to sometimes overdo some of the emotional scenes. This isn't entirely inappropriate though considering the age of the character she is playing. On the other hand, Aiken is an adorable child actor with an infectious giggle and irresistible face. It's nice to note that he isn't simply used for "cuteness value" and is actually given quite a bit to do in the course of the film. The always reliable Lynn Whitfield also turns up in a small role as Jackie's doctor.

Chris Columbus (whose previous directing credits include Adventures In Babysitting, Home Alone and Mrs. Doubtfire) remains a minor director who relies a bit too heavily on false manipulation.

There's a John Williams score that is characteristically intrusive but surprisingly unmemorable. However, the music supervision is quite good with a nice mix of classic and modern tunes. Most prominently featured is the classic Motown song "Ain't No Mountain High Enough" performed by Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell. The song is featured in not one, but two, sing-a-long sessions with the kids and one of the women. The second comes shortly after Jackie announces she has cancer.

Stepmom is designed to reduce audiences to tears but takes the easy way out by relying on cliches and manufactured situations. Both the characters and the audience become victims of a bad script.

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