Lovely & Amazing

Writer-director Nicole Holofcener demonstrated a preternatural knack for capturing the bonds between women in her 1996 modest and little-seen relationship comedy delight Walking and Talking. But her second film, Lovely & Amazing, fails to find the same spark as it eavesdrops on a family of gratingly neurotic and insecure women. Sad-eyed Brenda Blethyn, a specialist at screwed-up moms (Little Voice, Secrets & Lies), is the emotionally messy matriarch, who spends most of the movie in the hospital due to complications from liposuction surgery. While she's laid up, her two adult daughters--an aimless, angry, faded homecoming queen (Catherine Keener) and a pretty but affection-starved, self-doubting actress (Emily Mortimer)--reluctantly split the duty of watching their adopted, 8-year-old, African-American sister (Raven Goodwin), who is overweight and self-conscious but seemingly better equipped to deal with life than her anxiety-addled siblings. The film's performances are all above reproach, but the characters are so shrill that the longer the movie goes on, the more it feels like cinematic therapy for the writer-director--and there's just too much emotional baggage to unpack here. Not a necessary purchase. [Note: DVD extras include a quartet of cast/director interview segments: "Getting it Going," "Playing the Part," "Making it Work," and "Enjoying Each Other," ranging from two to over three-minutes in length; and a theatrical trailer. Bottom line: a skimpy extras package for a so-so film.] (R. Blackwelder)