Stepmom (1998)

Slow pace in the most part of the movie.

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

Julia Roberts from Mirror Mirror and Susan Sarandon from Enchanted team up in this touching drama about a woman named Jackie(Sarandon)who's husband(played by Ed Harris) divorces her and is now engaged to a much younger woman named Isabelle(played by Roberts)and has two children from her ex. Of course when Jackie first meets Isabelle she detests her and would do anything to get her kids back even if it was signing a contract to keep her kids. But Jackie of course in hiding a painful secret(yup what I am going to say is like what Nicholas Sparks would do in his novels been turned into movies). Jackie has cancer. Of course she doesn't tell her kids or her ex husband about it and would go to a private clinic to get herself looked after. But how long has she left to live? And will she get treatment?From the man that brought you Mrs Doubtfire and Home Alone as well as the first Harry Potter film,this is a real tearjearker to watch,especially near the end where I was left teary-eyed in the end. The cast was spot on. Susan Sarandon was excellent as the bitchy ex wife to Ed Harris who is dying of cancer. While Julia Roberts(sporting a much lighter hair-do than her frizzy curly red hair)was great as Isabelle the photographer that steal Ed's heart. The story to its credit has been done to death and like I have mentioned this movie might as well been made into a novel by Nicholas Sparks as it carries the same cliché as his novels(even though he never wrote a novel on this movie).Bottom line if you haven't seen it and if its on TV I recommend it to you or if you want you can just buy it on DVD.B-7/10

1998 gave audiences two major moms dying pictures, one of them "One True Thing" with Meryl Streep and Renee Zellweger and the other "Stepmom." Chris Columbus directed this. There, that's all you need to know. Filmed like a T.V. sitcom but with the content of a Hallmark movie, it's paint by numbers film-making that works overtime trying to wrench tears from its audience. That it does is only because it's about a subject that would make anyone with a half-way functioning heart cry, not because of any skill on Columbus's part.Julia Roberts and especially Susan Sarandon do a fair job of keeping the overly-abundant sentimentality at bay, but they have to fight Columbus every step of the way.Grade: C+

As a stepmom, I have quite a few things to say about this film. I think this is one of the worst films the great Susan Sarandon and Julia Roberts have ever been in. This is basically about a man who is divorced with 2 kids who has a new, much younger girlfriend. I don't want to explain everything about the movie, just a few annoying points. First of all, the biological mother played by Sarandon lives in an incredibly beautiful and expensive home in Connecticut. She also has lots of land and horses. Sarandon apparently does not work either. The father played by Harris lives in the city in another incredibly beautiful and expensive place and they all drive expensive cars. How is this possible? With the bio-mom receiving the house, the child support and alimony payments it's a wonder he is not living in a 1 bedroom apartment. According to the way everybody is living, he must be a multi millionaire. Of course the new girlfriend, Roberts, is a trendy fashion photographer. Uygh. It seems everybody has lots of money. That is what irks me, because along with all the drama involved in being part of a blended family, one major problem is money. Ex- wives taking their ex-husbands back to court for more support, etc.. The struggles of the second family to make ends meet because 30% of the fathers income is going to his ex-wife. Apparently this is not an issue here. Another thing is the ex-husband, Harris, meets his ex- wife, Sarandon for dinner to discuss the fact that he will be asking his girlfriend, Roberts, to marry him. Come on. I can understand telling the bio-mom before you tell the kids, but telling her before you give your girlfriend the ring? It was like he was asking permission from his ex-wife to ask his girlfriend to marry him. It's so nice that ex-spouses can get along so well. Detect sarcasm. Oooh, if I found out my fiancé did that he'd be in a world of trouble. Another thing that irked me was that Roberts received a call on the job to pick up her future stepson at school. Apparently, the mom and dad could not do it and nobody else was available. I believe you have to be on a list at the school to be allowed to remove children for the safety of the kids. How did the fathers girlfriend get on that list? Please. So she risks her job to pick up a child that she is not responsible for. She goes back to her photo shoot in the park with the kid, but he wanders off. He eventually gets found, but when the bio mom finds out she is furious, and files a restraining order against Roberts. Huh? How about reprimanding the kid for wandering off when he was specifically told not to, and then not allowing Roberts to take responsibility for the kids ever again? If Roberts lives with the kids father, a restraining order seems quite ridiculous. I have to say, that this film shows a fantasy that most stepmoms have when dealing with unreasonable, jealous ex-wives. That fantasy is the bio mom dying. Yes, Sarandon has cancer and is going to die. How wonderful that would be for so many non custodial stepmoms, no more alimony, child support payments, a hefty life insurance policy payout, and no more controlling ex-wife poisioning the kids against their father and stepmom. But this is a fantasy, not reality. This film ends up not about being a stepmom and having a successful family, but tying up loose ends and preparing the kids for having a replacement mom when the bio mom dies.

Chris Columbus directed 'Stepmom' is a winner all the way... a true 1998 Classic! The film is highly entertaining, in fact there is hardly a moment when you feel bored in this 123 minute-film. Columbus has made superb films, and 'Stepmom' ranks as his best.The film has a beautiful story, a story about a divorced couple, their children and the Stepmom. The film explains the worth of a family... it surely leaves a great moral behind. The climax is superb, it gets you moist-eyed.Performance-wise: Ed Harris is Incredible, as ever. He steals the show in a small, but significant role. Julia Roberts is fantastic as the Stepmom. Susan Sarandon needs to mentioning, she's a class apart. Liam Aiken & Jena Malone, the kids, stand out.On the whole 'Stepmom' is a must watch for each and every cine-lover.