X
- 1998
- PG-13
- TriStar Pictures
- 2 h 4 m
- 1998
- PG-13
- TriStar Pictures
- 2 h 4 m
Summary This tearjerker centers on the relationship between a divorced mother (Sarandon) and the new woman in her ex-husband's life (Roberts).
Directed By: Chris Columbus
- 1998
- PG-13
- TriStar Pictures
- 2 h 4 m
- 1998
- PG-13
- TriStar Pictures
- 2 h 4 m
Stepmom
58
7.4
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Summary This tearjerker centers on the relationship between a divorced mother (Sarandon) and the new woman in her ex-husband's life (Roberts).
Directed By: Chris Columbus
Where to Watch
Coming Soon
Not available in your country?
ExpressVPN
Get 3 Extra months free
$6.67/mth
Top Cast
Metascore
Mixed or Average
Based on 21 Critic Reviews
58
43% Positive
9 Reviews
9 Reviews
52% Mixed
11 Reviews
11 Reviews
5% Negative
1 Review
1 Review
Metascore
Mixed or Average
Based on 21 Critic Reviews
58
43% Positive
9 Reviews
9 Reviews
52% Mixed
11 Reviews
11 Reviews
5% Negative
1 Review
1 Review
A genuinely affecting movie that approaches its adult themes with intelligence, maturity, and rare authenticity.
A film that's sad and poignant but not without humorous moments.
By Ruthe Stein
FULL REVIEW
User Score
Generally Favorable
Based on 38 User Ratings
7.4
66% Positive
25 Ratings
25 Ratings
29% Mixed
11 Ratings
11 Ratings
5% Negative
2 Ratings
2 Ratings
User Score
Generally Favorable
Based on 38 User Ratings
7.4
66% Positive
25 Ratings
25 Ratings
29% Mixed
11 Ratings
11 Ratings
5% Negative
2 Ratings
2 Ratings
This one of Julia Roberts better,newer movies. It's not like her take offs of 1940s romance thrillers made in the late 80s and early 90s where the woman would scream"I THOUGHT YOU LOVED ME!" at her man.
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Es una película muy conmovedora y sentimental; las actuaciones de Julia Roberts y Susan Sarandon son excelentes; es recomendable.
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To its credit, the film doesn't sugarcoat its women too monstrously, and it lets real conflicts and opinions occasionally creep in.
In a lumbering way, this depressing feel-good drama about the impact of cancer on two children, their divorced parents, and the father's girlfriend offers some useful insights into how feelings of jealousy and betrayal can limit the potential of family relationships.
The movie is reasonably smart and touching when it deals with the plight of a family on the rocks, but it pushes too many emotional buttons when the ex-wife is diagnosed with a fatal illness that proceeds to take over the story.
Loathsome though Stepmom is, the eternally coltish Roberts is always a pleasure to watch and Sarandon's mordant wit occasionally comes to the fore.
This is the kind of tearjerker that will cause audience members to cry, but only because they paid hard-earned money to see it.
On the surface, Julia Robert's character seems more likeable. She is gorgeous and keeps her cool unlike her counterpart. However, the internal conflicts of a divorced, cancer patient portrayed by Susan Sarandon are so real, I couldn't help siding with her even during her darkest moments.
Report
A movie that works best on TV, but it has been forgotten over time.
This one-hundred-percent family movie is about divorce and how families rebuild later. Essentially, it's a movie about losses, and how they are surmountable. Directed by Chris Columbus and dedicated by him to his late mother, who had died of cancer the previous year, the film also deals with cancer and death. To some extent, it may even have been a way for the director to deal with grief.
The script is simple: After divorcing Jackie, Luke decides to date photographer Isabel. But she is not welcomed by his ex-wife, who declares war on her, nor by the two children they have had, and who definitely don't want her around, seeing her as their mother's illegitimate substitute in their father's life. Isabel, a woman who never wanted to be a mother, tries to deal with children in the best way but makes mistakes and is heavily reprimanded. But everything changes when Jackie is diagnosed with cancer. The disease forces everyone to review how they relate and ultimately drives Jackie closer to Isabel.
At cast level, the two lead actresses take the film back on their own: Julia Roberts is a good actress and is in good shape here, and Susan Sarandon also does a good job, although her character is obnoxious and cynical most of the time. The end makes us feel that she has received back the bad karma she has planted. Ed Harris does what he needs to do, but his character only exists because he really had to exist, and hardly appears in most of the movie. It's a female movie. Children, of course, have a good participation as well, but they just do childish things, with the exception of Jena Malone, who is old enough to give us something else - and she can do it.
Personally, I found this movie decent enough for the TV as it reminds me of movies that are made from scratch for the small screen. There is no cinematic sense in the way everything was conceived. I've never seen him in the movie theater but I think it would go a long way ... it's a wrong-thinking movie with great actors that seem to me to be underused most of the time. Perhaps that is why it has been forgotten and, more than twenty years after its release, almost no one remembers it.
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Production Company
- TriStar Pictures
- 1492 Pictures
- Columbia Pictures
Release Date Dec 25, 1998
Duration 2 h 4 m
Rating PG-13
Tagline Be there for the joy. Be there for the tears. Be there for each other.
Awards
Golden Globes, USA
• 1 Nomination
Young Artist Awards
• 3 Wins & 3 Nominations
Blockbuster Entertainment Awards
• 1 Win & 3 Nominations