The Looking Glass

Largely a vanity project for writer-actress Dorothy Tristan (whose onscreen credits include 1972's Klute), The Looking Glass is a thin drama about an unhappy 13-year-old girl named Julie (Grace Tarnow), whose mother dies, after which Julie goes to stay with her cantankerous grandmother, Karen (Tristan). Karen is a legendary, retired actress of stage and screen who lives semi-independently on a rural spread. She is also beginning to slide into dementia and has cardiac problems. Despite these obstacles, Karen takes in Julie, but winds up being judgmental and prickly towards the girl. Auditions for a community theater production lure Julie into her first stage experience, a development that thrills Karen. But Julie's grief is made worse by a two-timing boy, while the arrival of her father adds further complications. As Julie, Tarnow is one-note, which makes Tristan's shot at a virtuoso performance that much more obvious in this film directed by Tarnow's husband, John Hancock. A disappointing effort, this is not a necessary purchase. (T. Keogh)