A loss-and-recovery weepie about the All-American Family (two boys, of high-school and grade-school age) devastated by the death of the breadwinner and forced to start anew in Anne Tyler's stomping ground, Baltimore. There, the conspiratorial quirkiness of the people and events pretty much invalidates the movie as a universalized soap opera: Are there really so many loons in that neck of the woods, or were the filmmakers just trying to give Tyler a run for her money? But then too, Jessica Lange, an actress heavy on the vibrato, and with a new and dubious auburn tint to her hair, can manage to make even normality seem awfully unnatural. Barbara Benedek, sole writer on the steadier-toned soap opera Immediate Family, was one of two co-writers here along with director Paul Brickman (Risky Business). So suspicion points toward Brickman, with evidence drawn as well from the screaky acting ensemble and the grayly lackluster photography. Joan Cusack, Arliss Howard. (1990) — Duncan Shepherd
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