When you know this is an All Girl Production it comes as no surprise to find it's a feel-good movie aimed at women.

Indeed, men hardly figure in the proceedings at all which is, you might suppose, nice for the ladies - but not so riveting for the rest of us.

That said, at least it knows its market and, despite a couple of moments of misjudged melodrama, succeeds perfectly well.

First things first. The Ya-Ya Sisterhood is a group of four childhood friends who took a blood oath to remain true to one another through life.

Now in their twilight years, they are an irascible crew, constantly squabbling, but with that innate knowledge of one another only time can bring.

Vivi (Burstyn) threatens to disown her playwright daughter Sidda (Bullock) after a magazine article misrepresents comments she made about how she was brought up.

It's up to the rest of the sisterhood, who rather annoyingly continue to chant ya-ya at every opportunity, to bring the two together.

Comfortably into their bus pass years, they resemble nobody so much as the Golden Girls with a chronic drink problem.

As Caro (Smith) wryly observes: "The only disease that could survive our bloodstreams is alcoholism."

So, fuelled by large Bloody Marys, they get to work - by kidnapping Sidda in New York and taking her back to the boondocks of Louisiana - without telling her mum.

By flashback, they reveal the 'divine secrets' of how they grew up - and the truth about Sidda's complicated and unconventional mother.

Young Vivi (Ashley Judd) is revealed as a trouble young woman - as her husband Shep (James Garner) admits: "When I said for better or worse, I knew it was a coin toss."

The sisterhood are the film's principal strength - Caro constantly trailing an oxygen cylinder around with her while Teensy (Fionnula Flanagan) cruises the bayou in a vintage Rolls Royce convertible.

Bullock is the weak link. Looking increasingly desperate in her search for roles, she simply doesn't have the versatility to play Sidda.

There's also a couple of clunking scenes - the young sisterhood's food-throwing rejection of a junior racist is just too pat and, given the context of the times, totally unbelievable.

However, the narrative throws up some surprises and, if you're not averse to a load of Bullock, this pans out amiably enough.

Tim Evans