Stars: Julia Roberts, Susan Sarandon, Ed Harris, Darrell Larson, Lynn Whitfield, Jena Malone, Mary Louise Wilson

Director: Chris Columbus

Summary: A story of the universal problem faced when people get divorced of step-parents, step-children, ex-spouses, new lovers etc. Isobel is the girlfriend of Jackie's ex-husband Luke and the two women have considerable differences until Jackie discovers she is ill...

Jackie (Susan Sarandon) and Luke (Ed Harris) are divorcing after years of marriage and two children, Anna and Ben. Their new stepmother, Isabel (Julia Roberts), wants to be involved in the children's life, but is unwilling to sacrifice anything for her work. Jackie considers this to be selfish and rude, sparking a conflict between the two women. When cancer enters the picture, everyone is forced to grow in order to settle their differences. A tearjerker in the truest sense of the word.

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Although Stepmomwas dismissed as a contender in the 1998 Oscar race, it's worth giving a second chance to this rather cogent, sharp-tongued look at second chances. Susan Sarandon's performance as a mum about to be replaced by her ex-husband's new girlfriend (played by Julia Roberts) has a lot of bite, and it's a shame the script opted to trivialise her plight in its final reel. Initially, the rancour that passes between divorced mum Jackie (Sarandon) and trendy fashion photographer Isabel (Roberts) rings true, aided by the sincerity of Jackie's ex-husband Luke (Ed Harris) and the emotional plight of their children, who have the most to lose in their parents' divorce. As the drama makes clear, the children are the real victims in the agony that ensues between old and new love.

Director Chris Columbus, who is adept at showing familial chaos (he directed Mrs. Doubtfireand Home Alone) with a sanitised minimum of lingering emotional damage, actually manages to dig a trifle deeper than usual in exploring the jealousy and hurt that occur when the baton is passed between a birth mum and the younger wife who steps into her shoes. Stepmomfortunately manages to touch on that chord--showing how an ambitious woman might feel hampered by the responsibility of children just because she's fallen in love with their dad--as well as the haunting grief that it causes their birth mum. It's an issue that haunts millions of second wives everywhere, and while Roberts conveys the confusion of being taken for granted in the melee that follows, it's Sarandon who walks off with the film. She's relentless in her fury, and everyone else in the film--the generally excellent Harris included--is sideswiped. It's just a shame that Hollywood once again wimps out in the end, solving the problem by giving Sarandon a terminal illness. Instead of allowing Jackie and Isabel's relationship to unfold on something less than a high note, the movie has to quell its best thing with a false payoff because it doesn't know what to do with real life. --Paula Nechak, Amazon.com

Aspect Ratio:	2.35 Wide Screen, 16:9 Anamorphic Wide Screen
Main Language:	English
Region:	Region 2
Special Features:	Behind The Scenes Featurette, Star Interviews, Filmography, Theatrical Trailer
Subtitles:	Czech, Danish, English, Finnish, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Icelandic, Norwegian, Polish, Russian, Swedish, Turkish
Year:	1998
Release Date:	April 4, 2005
Runtime:	120 minutes
Certification:
Catalogue Number:	C 823 404 3
Keywords:	General, Wide, Screen, Drama, Stepmom
Genre:	Drama