Product Details

• Actors: Julie Kavner, Samantha Mathis, Gaby Hoffmann, Carrie Fisher, Dan Aykroyd
• Directors: Nora Ephron
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, NTSC
• Language: English
• Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: 20th Century Fox
• VHS Release Date: January 1, 1998
• Run Time: 94 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 2.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6302430747
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #13,211 in Video (See Bestsellers in Video)

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Editorial Reviews

From The New Yorker
The first film directed by the novelist and screenwriter Nora Ephron is a modest, uninsistent family comedy about a single mom from Queens who becomes a famous standup comic and, in the process, strains her relationship with her two young daughters. The movie is consistently good-humored without ever being really funny; the scenes float by on a lulling current of amiability and mild perkiness, and nothing surprising or incongruous bobs up. The picture's wispy, genial not-badness is a little puzzling, because both the material and the cast are strong enough to support a much sturdier and more satisfying piece of entertainment. The script, by the director and her sister Delia, drastically compresses a good 1988 novel (called "This Is Your Life") by Meg Wolitzer; the story emerges from the screenwriters' rapid-weight-loss clinic daze, unused to its new lightness. The heroine is played by the wonderful, raspy-voiced Julie Kavner, and Samantha Mathis and Gaby Hoffmann, the young actresses who play her daughters, are lively and skillful; none of the performers leave a memorable impression, though. Ephron doesn't go for big vulgar laughs or big vulgar emotions. Most of the time, it's hard to tell exactly what she is going for: the discreet, temperate tone doesn't betray any sense of urgency or purpose. The movie's lack of drive is frustrating, and its well-manneredness is oddly out of keeping with the subject matter. The picture doesn't have the steel or the shamelessness that good comedians need. It's all buildup and no payoff-a shaggy-dog story, not a killer routine. Also with Dan Aykroyd and Carrie Fisher. The hideous score is by Carly Simon. -Terrence Rafferty
Copyright © 2006 The New Yorker

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Seeing Spots, October 29, 2001

By	Sir Adam of Scots "~S~A~O~S~" ((please remember to vote!!)) - See all my reviews

You know when you are real little and your parent't want to shove a vegitable in your mouth, and you instantly reject it? Even if it makes it into your mouth you spit it out? Then after a time and you grow a little, vegitables aren't the big nasty monster's that your dad used to shove in your face? Well, that's the best way to describe this film from my point of view. I flipped through the channel's, stopped on the opening titles and kept on flipping. A second passed and I decided to flip back and give it a chance. What a rewarding decision that was. Julie Kavner won a place in my imagination with her portrayal of a nurse in Awakening's, my favorite film. She also does the voice of Marge Simpson. You get to see a performance that comes from the simpson side of her talent's as she plays a comedian and mother of two girls: Samantha Mathis, and Gabby Hoffman.(Both of these girls have since grown into blossoming careers) What I most enjoyed was the sincerity, and honesty as the girls deal with the same problems as their mother. Each trying to discover the secrets of life and love. Their mother is trying to stay on the road as a hit comedian and at the same time be a loving mom, while the girls are dealing with the effect's of their mother's action's and her spotty dress. A lot of light hearted moment's and a really enjoyable movie.

4 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Slight, June 14, 2000

By	Peter Shelley "petershelley" (Marrickville, New South Wales Australia) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Nora Ephron's first effort as director (made before Sleepless in Seattle) stars Julie Kavner as a stand-up comedian. You would think that this would work considering how funny Kavner has been in The Tracey Ullman Show, the Woody Allen movies, and as the voice of Marge Simpson. But although she has some clever line readings and works to make the routines come alive, she fails since the material is not funny. This is made worse by Ephron's cuts to the audience laughing in hysteria. Kavner also isn't believable as a mother. She's more the big sister type, and I think miscast, playing a character who needs to be sympathetic for us to accept her following her ambition at the cost of the responsibilities of her family. Ephron does better with Kavner's two daughters, Samantha Morris and Gaby Hoffman, who both give wonderful performances. Morris in particular is a revelation as the sensitive teenager in angst, embarassed by her mother. Ephron's best work is in the way she presents Morris' schoolyard romance, treading a delicate line between comedy and pathos. Morris also gets one of the best lines. When fans approach her mother at an airport, she asks "Do you like people coming up to you and not even knocking?". The film is actually peppered with witty dialogue, and a polka dot design is fun. But the score by Carly Simon is a major minus featuring irritatingly bland songs performed by herself. Watch out for Barbara Stewart in a small role - she plays an airhead with a Southern charm that is sweet and funny.

1 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Somthing just doesn't fit in this movie., January 2, 2001

By A Customer

The acting was fantastic but at times it gets too slow, or too drawn out, or maybe the cast just wasn't right. But who am i to judge. Some people think it was a great film, i on the other hand just don't see why it was so great. out.