This film is worth watching for one reason and one reason
alone- it is a testament to Meryl Streep’s abilities as an actress. Her
performance brings up a clichéd and to be honest quite predictable film,
meaning it is actually rather enjoyable, in spite of its many, many issues.
The primary reason is the way in which she evokes sympathy
within a decidedly unsympathetic role. The film itself focusses on a musician
who essentially abandoned her family to pursue her dreams of music stardom and
now wants to make amends following her (now adult) daughter’s breakdown.
Said
abandonment for her own selfish ambitions initially makes it very hard to be on
her side. However, you can really see through Streep’s performance that she
deeply regrets her actions and desperately wants to reconnect with her family.
Therefore, the character is actually redeemed throughout the film.
However, Streep’s performance does not change the fact that
the film is very clichéd, as mentioned earlier. This is essentially the
basic premise of 70% of Indie movies, with someone returning to somewhere to
try and reconnect with some people who they were once close to. It doesn’t
matter how well done this particular re-hashing is, the audience knows exactly
how this story is going to go, they can predict every move the story will make.
In spite of this, this type of story has been done to death
for a reason. It does make for a sweet film. Even if you do know exactly what
is going to happen, it is still vaguely enjoyable due to a combination of this
and Meryl Streep’s performance as the main character.
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