This is writer-director Callie Khouri's realization of the book by the same name and its companion, _Little Altars Everywhere_ -- Rebecca Wells's runaway bestsellers about mothers, daughters, and Southern craziness. (Khouri wrote the screenplay for "Thelma and Louise.") Siddalee Walker (Bullock) is a successful, 30-something playwright in New York whose comments about her crazy mother, Vivian Jane Abbott "Vivi" Walker, back in Louisiana to a reporter with Time magazine throw her ma into a rage. Her mother's elderly girlfriends (the Ya-Ya Sisterhood) kidnap Siddalee and take her back to the woods to learn about her mother's true past, and try to effect peace. Maggie Smith, Fionnula Flanagan, and Shirley Knight are winning as the salty old gals, and gorgeous Ashley Judd does a tremendous acting job as the young Vivi. Burstyn has less to do as Vivi today, but looks and acts terrific. North Carolina stands in for Louisiana, the mother's breakdown is rushed and incomplete compared to its exploration in the novel, but this is a wonderful feel-good picture.
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The review of this Movie prepared by David Loftus
