bcjjjs The Sisterhood is portrayed in "now and then". The casting of the older sisterhood was Ellen Burstyn as Vivi, Fionnula Flanagan as Teensey, Shirley Knight as Necie and Maggie Smith as Caro, all brilliant. The problem was the casting of the four actresses who portrayed the sisterhood when they were younger. Ashley Judd does not resemble Ellen Burstyn as a younger woman and neither do the other three actresses portraying Teensey, Necie and Maggie, respectively. This made the film very confusing to watch. The film often reverted back and forth, from present day to the past. As the writers did not use the sisterhood names enough in the script, the viewer could not readily identify who they were.EXAMPLE (SPOILER ALERT): Ashley Judd is riding a bike with a friend (never identified, is it Carol or Necie or somebody else?) over a bridge. They are stopped by a young man. Who is he? (I had to look up his face on IMDb to find he is listed as Vivi's brother, Pete!) The young man says, "Vivi, we have to go to Teensey's house." He was sad. They leave to go to Teensey's house. I still do not know who is the other girl on the bike. If the writers had added to Pete's dialogue, "Caro (or Necie?), come with us" then it would have helped the viewer know who she is. When the three arrive at Teensey's house, you slowly realize that Teensey's brother is Jack, Vivi's fiancé, who was killed in the war. And the viewer was to know they were related, how? This happened so often in the film that I kept rewinding scenes to "get" the film.The film is a disturbing look at Vivi's life. She never recovered from Jack's death, married Shep (James Garner) on the rebound, had 4 children, and was completely unhappy, almost to the point of hating everyone around her. She heads on a downward spiral, ending up an alcoholic.(SPOILER ALERT) When Siddalee (excellently portrayed by Sandra Bullock, as Vivi's eldest daughter) was a young girl, Vivi had a total nervous breakdown. Vivi then disappeared, in Siddalee's eyes. Siddalee and her siblings thought their mother went away because they were bad. Siddalee remembers it wrongly because Vivi made Shep swear never to tell the children she had been committed. Because this tragic secret had never been revealed to Siddalee, she had been in and out of therapy her entire life.I am honestly not an Ashley Judd fan. Most of the film rested on her shoulders. We realize that Vivi is emotionally scarred due to a jealous, mentally unstable mother. I could've felt sorry for Vivi, but Judd did not make the character likable. In many scene, Judd either underacts or overacts. Later in the film, the modern-day Necie says to Siddalee, "I wish you could've known your mother when she was younger. She was so likable." And I said out loud, "no, she not."

someofusarebrave I gotta say, when I first read the reviews of this movie never having seen it before, I thought that the reviewers were being typically chauvinistic patriarchal drones and giving it such low scores because it was a movie about women, and they did not appreciate movies about women. I thought they simply could not understand the beauty of such a multi-generational film. I thought they were just being jerks.I have since learned that they were right.This movie IS awful. It did not have to be awful--in fact, it ought to have been good. Many of the actresses in this film are excellent and are stars in their own right; the supporting cast of men looked solid.The acting was good. That was the only redeemable bit of the movie.The fact that Sandra Bullock can be watchable even in the dregs like this movie speaks more to her talent than the movie's success.If there is one theme however that films "about women" insist upon time and time again, however, it is that looks can be deceiving.The direction of this film was terrible. The editing was worse.The core story of this film--abusive mother becomes alcoholic in her old age after having raised a bipolar, far-too-straitlaced daughter.They yell, they scream, they have conflicts and they resolve them.Now, this movie could have been made in a new and exciting way. It could have been great. It could have really called our mothers to task for using alcohol as a coping mechanism for all and sundry, and it could have called ourselves to task for using work and lack of a social life as a way to avoid the past. It could have opened our eyes to the ways we fall into whatever relationship opportunities present themselves rather than make truly genuine and thus difficult decisions.It could have; it did not.The movie spent half its time in flashbacks, which has never particularly been a favorite story-telling mechanism of mine. It spent its entire middle engaged in fairly useless fighting between the main character's mother and fiancée and father, which wasted time. The flashbacks' significance or impact on Siddalee were rarely explained, leaving us to guess as to Why We Should Care. For those of us who did not grow up in the South, the sudden entrance into a way of life we had no familiarity with whatsoever was jolting, to say the least. There was little-to-no context given to any of the revelations meant to explain it all. There was too much the rest of the time.Meanwhile, no one stopped drinking, Siddalee never got the opportunity to actually confront her mother regarding her mother's abuses, and Siddalee's father never left the woman who tortured him for so long.Meaning, no one ever got the opportunity to be human--instead they became caricatures in a story 'bout how Forgiveness Heals All.This is a story about crazy white people doing crazy white people things and never acknowledging or even seeming to realize that the things they were doing were completely 100% insane and pointless.Nice job, y'all, and I DO mean that sarcastically. Nice job.

shamrocker317 This movie was suggested to me on netflix several months ago but I never had time to watch it or had it sent to my house. Last week I had decided to watch it and it blew me away!!! Since last week I have watched the entire movie 5 times and already bought the DVD. The cast was simply amazing. Ashley Judd's performance as Vivi was spectacular at playing this simple yet "wounded" character. If you are someone who has gone through hardships you will definitely appreciate this movie.It is vivid, moving, and witty.Definitely an all time favorite :)

wild-cherry-1 Hello everybody,I saw the film yesterday, it's a moving story anyway.I live in in Central Europe and I was wondering why Vivi, who was extremely well-off (large detached house with many rooms, 2 bathrooms, she had an own car and didn't have to work as a wife & mother), was not able to appreciate, to treasure all (including people) she had? Where I live, average people live in small apartments (mortgage loan) with 2 or 3 rooms in a tenement house, mothers have to work full time (or overtime...) even if they'd rather stay st home with the children, a lot of families don't even have a car cause they can't afford it. But rich people here aren't that rich like Vivi's family and her social environment!Elderly women can't afford hairdresser, cosmetics, beautiful clothes, etc. regularly either. And alcoholics (drug abusers) are usually underclass here 'cause drinking costs a lot of money, too. :P So they lose their jobs, apartments, cars, health and family members (divorce, isolation) and have a high risk to be homeless.By the way, Vivi didn't have to fight for anything! To make a little effort... That was one of her problem, one of the reasons, I think!Even love came easily to her. (But it flew away...) Though I know - or I suppose - her unhappiness came from the lack of real love (in a sexual meaning) to her husband. She only liked him but not loved. Big difference! That's why she couldn't find the way tho their children's hearts either: they were not the fruits of a relationship based on true love, their faces were no mirrors of the beloved man. So I think that you can be any rich or any poor, you might live in a developed country or in the second (third) world, doesn't really matter. Only love, honesty and harmony in the family counts.Other conclusion: Don't go for the second best! Don't lie love to any man - and to yourself!