*** Offical "DIVINE SECRETS OF THE YA-YA SISTERHOOD" Review Thread (1 Viewer)

[Mark Palermo]

It's easy to foresee grownup daughters and mothers embracing Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood as the movie they traditionally watch together. But they needn't fall for its Hallmark card excess. Based on a popular novel by Rebecca Wells, and marking the directorial debut of Thelma and Louise scribe Callie Khouri, the film tells a story of how generational discord can lead to understanding with the realization that (gasp!) there was a time when old people were young. Sidda Lee Walker (Sandra Bullock) is a New York playwright who has lost chemistry with her mother Vivi (Ellen Burnstyn). When Vivi's friends, who named themselves The Ya-Ya Sisterhood as children, kidnap Sidda, they instruct her on the turbulent events of Vivi's Southern upbringing. Everything that works in the film is attributed solely to the strengths of the older cast members. Burnstyn, Maggie Smith, and Shirley Knight are permitted firey indulgence, while Bullock and Ashley Judd, appearing as Vivi in 1960s flashbacks (no this isn't a ‘Nam film), are afforded dull and nondescript parts. It doesn't help that the script considers elderly characters swearing and discussing alcoholism to be the pinnacle of comic genius. Or that Khouri fails to visually distinguish the various time settings of her flashback structure–the whole film is shot in the comfortable homeliness of house-light yellows, which suggests nothing distinct about either the past or present. It unfolds in one gigantic act, featuring excursions (such as Sidda's childhood plane ride with her mother) which may be tolerated in a novel, but are insignificant in the compressed structuralism of film. By avoiding narrative organization, Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood's two hours feels closer to three.

Mark

 

[Robert Crawford]

This thread is now the Official Review Thread for "Devine Secret of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood". Please post all HTF member reviews in this thread.
Any other comments, links to other reviews, or discussion items will be deleted from this thread without warning!
If you need to discuss those type of issues then I have designated an Official Discussion Thread.
Crawdaddy

 

[Patrick Sun]

Yes, I saw this film as well, and it's sort of a yawner, with bits of guffaws from Maggie Smith's lines for the most part. I'm a sucker for Ashley Judd films, thus my main reason to see the film. It moved a bit too slowly, and the payoff wasn't as earth-shattering as I'd hoped it to be. The performances were good, but the material could have been better. This is a chick flick, no 2 ways about it. You have been warned.

I give it 2.5 stars, or a grade of C+.