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Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood film review
DIVINE SECRETS OF THE YA-YA SISTERHOOD
Running time: 116 mins
Starring: Sandra Bullock, Ellen Burstyn, James Garner, Maggie Smith, Angus Macfadyen, Fionnula Flanagan, Shirley Knight, Ashley Judd
Oscar-winning screenwriter Callie Khouri (Thelma & Louise) makes her directorial debut with this sentimental chick flick, based on the novels by Rebecca Wells.
Divine Secrets Of The Ya-Ya Sisterhood is unlikely to appeal to anyone outside of the target audience - middle-aged women - and even they might find the mawkish sentimentality and boisterous female bonding too sickly to swallow.
On the eve of her new play opening off-Broadway, rising New York playwright Siddalee Walker (Sandra Bullock) gives a full and frank interview to Time magazine, discussing her unhappy childhood, and her burgeoning relationship with handsome Irish fiance, Connor (Angus Macfadyen). Siddalee's estranged mother, Vivi (Ellen Burstyn), a faded Louisiana belle with a drink problem and more pride than sense, is so shamed by the article, she instantly disowns her daughter, to the dismay of her long suffering and estranged husband, Shep (James Garner).
As with everything in their long, though far from happy marriage, he suffers in silence, and leaves his wife to her histrionics and self-pity. In an attempt to avert World War III in the Walker household, Vivi's meddlesome best friends Caro (Maggie Smith), Teensy (Fionnula Flanagan) and Necie (Shirley Knight) travel to the Big Apple to tell Siddalee a few painful home truths about her mother's past.
When the playwright refuses to take note of the aging trio's protestations, they drug and kidnap Siddalee, and fly her back to the pace and tranquility of Louisiana. There, Caro, Teensy and Necie's sepia-toned reminiscences transport Siddalee back to the glorious '30s, to the glorious birth of the mystical Ya-Ya sisterhood, and to the swinging '60s, when Vivi (now played by Ashley Judd), struggled to raise her family and retain her sanity, without recourse to hitting her children. Meanwhile, Connor, who has always been banned from meeting Vivi, secretly arrives in town to meet his future in-laws.
Divine Secrets Of The Ya-Ya Sisterhood cuts back and forth between the three time frames to reveal the tears and tantrums of Siddalee's childhood, and her strained relationship with Vivi. It's an all too familiar yarn of self-loathing and misunderstanding, tinged with a generous amount of tragedy and regret, culminating in the tearful reunion of kith and kin.
Bullock gives a solid performance as a young woman poisoned by her deep-seated anger, but the script doesn't serve her particularly well, and her character sometimes comes across as whiny and unsympathetic. She is acted off the screen by Burstyn, Knight, Flanagan and especially Smith, who plays her role to the viperous comic hilt, delivering stinging one-liners with obvious glee, despite a somewhat hit-and-miss Southern accent.
The plot is incredibly slushy, and the two hour running time could be substantially trimmed, especially some of the flashbacks which merely reiterate the bonds of friendship between Caro, Teensy and Necie. Female audiences could warm to these kooky and dysfunctional sisters - at least two women in the screening I attended were in floods of tears. I wasn't convinced.
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