Yet another Hollywood movie based on a French original, this well-made weepie still has Gallic whiffs about its moods of melancholia. And, though it occasionally goes over the top, you will find yourself affected by the plight of Jessica Lange, suddenly widowed by a husband who leaves her with two sons, $63,000 in debts and insufficient insurance. Some of the editing seems a bit rough, doubtless in the effort to keep the film under two hours, but there's a multitude of incidents, well handled by director Paul Brickman, who creates a believable flat-dwellers' atmosphere while his star acts her socks off having a nervous breakdown, trying strainedly to enjoy herself, coping with older son Chris O'Donnell's love affair with an older woman (superb Joan Cusack) and tackling her small son's traumas and petty thieving. Go, enjoy and have a good cry.
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