Three superb performances grace this thinking person's weepie. Meryl Streep is bright-eyed home-maker Kate, a lady who lunches. William Hurt is her professor husband, George, too preoccupied with college matters to look after his wife, diagnosed terminally ill. So he summons his high-flying journalist daughter, Ellen, to care for her mother. A perfect recipe for TV movie tedium, you may think. But, no. Director Carl Franklin keeps sentimentality well in check, as he presents the story of Kate's decline and Ellen's painful progress towards a better understanding of her parents and their life. An admirable domestic drama, with some gut-wrenching moments, it's carefully and honestly made, with a particularly fine turn from Renée Zellweger as the daughter.