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Grab your tissues and send the guys away, because Divine Secrets
of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood is the most pedigreed chick flick since
Steel Magnolias. You can tell by the title and the novelish names
of the Louisiana ladies from Rebecca Wells's precious bestseller. First there's Sidda (Sandra Bullock), a successful playwright
still wrestling with her manipulative mother, Vivi (Ellen
Burstyn), after a traumatic upbringing. Then there's longtime
friends Teensy (Fionnula Flanagan), Necie (Shirley Knight), and
Caro (scene-stealer Maggie Smith), from Vivi's secret club of "Ya-Ya
Priestesses," together since childhood and determined to heal the
rift between Sidda and her mom.
Through an ambitious flashback
structure (including Ashley Judd as the younger Vivi),
screenwriter and first-time director Callie Khouri (who wrote
Thelma & Louise) establishes a rich context for this
mother-daughter reunion. There's plenty of humor to temper the
drama, which inspires Bullock's best work in years. Definitely
worth a look for the curious, but only fans of Wells's fiction
will feel any twinge of loyalty. --Jeff Shannon
Credits:
Actors: Kiersten Warren, Angus Macfadyen, David Lee Smith,
Jacqueline McKenzie, James Garner
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, Full Screen, NTSC
Language: English (Dolby Digital 5.1), French (Dolby Digital 5.1)
Subtitles: English, Spanish, French
Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only)
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