Four Pittsburgh-based sisters fight, cry, laugh and love in this modern-day
melodrama whose greatest strength is performances by a bevy of veteran
actresses. But their work is undermined by a clichéd screenplay that's
heavy on the promotion of traditional values and light on psychological
insight. Super-mom Grace (Mercedes Ruehl), the eldest Amati girl, has three
children — two rowdy boys and a dancing daughter — and an
old-fashioned husband, Joe (Paul Sorvino), who expects to be waited on hand
and foot. The more assertive Christine (Sean Young) is separated from Paul
(Jamey Sheridan), her workaholic spouse of 14 years, and considering divorce;
their teen daughter is also an aspiring dancer. Flighty Denise (Dinah Manoff)
is juggling marriage-minded boyfriend Lawrence (Mark Harmon) and her
long-deferred dreams of being a professional singer. And deeply religious,
mentally challenged Dolores (Lily Knight) lives with their recently widowed
mother, Dolly (Cloris Leachman), and dreams of having a boyfriend. Dolly's two
sisters complete the clan: single, flamboyant Splendora (Lee Grant, Manoff's real-life mother) and homey Loretta (Edith Fields), whose husband, Frankie
(Joe Greco), adores her. The plot is driven by an upcoming ballet recital at
which fathers are expected to partner their budding ballerinas, but its main
concern is the sisters' marital problems, which are resolved in very
old-fashioned ways. It's not revealing anything you can't see coming from the
outset that Christine learns it's better to work at marriage than abandon it,
Denise realizes she should marry Lawrence, and Dolores finds a soulmate.
Actress-turned-writer/director Anne DeSalvo developed her screenplay at
Sundance, but it smacks of a certain kind of TV movie filled with pious
uplift, even as it makes token concessions to contemporary lifestyles. The
sissified ballet teacher gets to say something wise, Dolly questions her
faith, and it even looks as though Denise and Lawrence might be having
pre-marital sex. The film's distributor, Providence Entertainment, is a heavy
hitter in the world of Christian filmmaking. --Maitland McDonagh
