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'Stepmom' (PG-13)

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'Stepmom'

By Stephen Hunter
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, December 25, 1998

 Movie Critic

Stepmom
Julia Roberts is the "Stepmom" who will be taking over the parenting role for Susan Sarandon. (Columbia)

Director:
Chris Columbus
Cast:
Susan Sarandon;
Julia Roberts;
Ed Harris;
Jena Malone;
Liam Aiken;
Lynn Whitfield;
Darrell Larson;
Mary Louise Wilson;
Jason Maves
Running Time:
2 hours, 5 minutes
PG-13
Contains sexual innuendo and the intensity of a family health crisis
If the fawning movies about the problems of the extremely prosperous set your teeth on edge, it's probably best to avoid "Stepmom." It's about wealthy people who get all tangled up in their emotions, but for the longest time seems like a tour of two of Martha Stewart's nicer abodes: a beautifully restored turn-of-the-century farmhouse just north of Manhattan and a many-vaulted, ultra-chicly decorated loft in SoHo.

The abodes symbolize the two women in the life of lawyer Luke Harrison (Ed Harris); in his old home, he was married to Jackie (Susan Sarandon) and the father of two adorable kids; now divorced and living in his new home, he is partnered up with much younger fashion photographer Isabel Kelly (Julia Roberts).

For a long time, the film is a vaguely comic riff on the problems of kids-as-ping-pong-balls as the children (Jena Malone and Liam Aiken) get bounced back and forth between domiciles and a mother who loves them and a stepmom who doesn't know what to do with them. Nobody is happy but everybody manages to come up with a quip three times a minute.

Sometimes you wonder: Are Sarandon and Roberts in the same movie? It doesn't feel that way, because Sarandon's performance is brittle, neurotic and cramped by gritty reality. Meanwhile, Roberts is spinning around in a little fantasy world in a thinly imagined version of the fashion business that never for a moment convinces.

The issues turn serious when A) Luke decides to formalize his relationship by marrying Isabel and B) Jackie develops lymphatic cancer that seems clearly terminal. Fortunately the film never turns into a disease-of-the-week thing, as Sarandon, in another of her patented strong woman roles, keeps the boo-hooing to a minimum and sets out to oversee the orderly transfer of mother's duty from herself to her replacement.

The movie seems to illustrate a peculiar fantasy of the late '90s, however; where once movies idealized perfect marriages, now they idealize perfect divorces. That seems to be the direction this one is heading as it chronicles the growth of Sarandon's acceptance until she's finally able to make peace with the situation she's handed.

It's not without moments of wit and powerful emotion, but somehow "Stepmom" never feels either real enough to move us deeply or bubbly enough to make us forget our woes.

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