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Mothers know best

Suparn Verma

Ed Harris and Julia Roberts in Stepmom. Click for bigger pic!

Director Chris Columbus is known for his gingerbread settings -- modern day realities set in a fantasy world -- and trying to make you laugh and cry. He did it in Mrs Doubtfire and does it again in Stepmom.

The film is the story of Jackie (Susan Sarandon) and Isabel (Julia Roberts), who are the ex-wife, and current live-in girlfriend respectively of Luke (Ed Harris). Jackie gave up her career in a publishing house ten years ago to raise the kids, while Luke spends his work hours fighting high-profile cases. As time passes, the couple grow apart till only the kids are of common interest to them. And so they get divorced, Luke getting custody of the children.

The film opens with Isabel trying to get familiar with Luke's 12-year-old daughter Anna (Jena Malone) and seven-year-old son Ben (Liam Aiken). The kids are hostile to the new presence in their home. So if Anna isn't pouting insults on Isabel, Ben is getting syrupy sweet and making a magic potion for Isabel, pepped with sleeping pills.

Susan Sarandon with Julia Roberts in Stepmom. Click for bigger pic!

Isabel, unlike Jackie, is very career-minded, with a high profile job in New York as a fashion photographer. She is the exact foil for Jackie, the peerless mother who has the entire schedule of her kids down pat. The kind who's never late to pick up the kids from school, having Anna's purple dress ready for 'Purple Day' at school, and seeing the children are ready on time for their riding lessons.

Jackie hates Isabel and makes no bones about it. The situation is ripe for a denouement when Jackie discovers she has cancer. She considers telling Luke about it but decides not to after he tells her he plans to get married to Isabel.

With that kind of impasse, the ladies slowly come to grips with one another, and the kids adjust to the stepmother.

What gives the film it's dignity and makes it above average are the two leading ladies. Not that Ed Harris isn't his usual consummate acting self. The young Liam too often steals the thunder right from everyone with his unpretentious charm. He's meant to be attractive, and, unlike many Hollywood cutelings, does a fine job of it.

Liam Aiken and Jena Malone in Stepmom. Click for bigger pic!

Jena, on the other hand, suffers from time to time because in typical 'movie style' she is made to say lines which would put an adult to shame. Her character fluctuates between one that mouths mature dialogue and one dealing with the dilemmas of a 12-year-old.

You do wonder, though, why is it that the traditional is considered the ideal and modern values corrupting, why Jackie has the upper hand till Isabel puts her career on the backburner, even messing up her work.

There are moments in the film that questions are raised but never answered. For instance, when Luke reveals his plans to marry Isabel, she asks him, "But how can you be sure it will work this time?" That's a pretty pertinent question in time when broken homes are the order of the day. But it slips away unanswered.

Click for bigger pic!

The film has both its fun and poignant moments -- when Isabel and Anna discover a common passion for music, or when Jackie sings Isabel's favourite song with her kids. The sequence of Jackie gives her children their Christmas presents before discussing more serious issues is well executed.

The highlight of that sequence is when Ben tells his mother, 'No one loves you the way I do'. Among scenes where men tell women about their love, this should perhaps rank as the best.

Susan Sarandon had years back played the role of a housewife-turned-rebel in Thelma and Louise along with Geena Davis. What made that film work was the scintillating repartee between the two characters with different mindsets. So while it's fun watching the two ladies spar here, somehow something is missing.

With Stepmom, director Christopher Columbus had the makings of a great film, but it ends up with a rating of 'pretty good' or nearabouts.