The same team (Australian director Bruce Beresford and writer Alfred Uhry) that brought "Driving Miss Daisy" to the big screen created this somewhat similarly warm and pleasant portrait of Southern eccentrics in 1993. Warren Odom (Finney) is a likable slob of a retired contractor in contemporary Charleston, South Carolina. One day he comes home to find his wife Helen (Clayburgh) has up and hit the road. Her word-processed farewell note has been softened by younger daughter Lucy (Kathryn Erbe, who eight years later received a lot more exposure as Vincent D'Onofrio's partner on "Law and Order: Criminal Intent"), a high school senior who skips graduation and lets her boyfriend Wayne (Hawke) slip through her fingers in her efforts to hold the crumbling household together. Father and daughter drive the roads looking for Mom, although Warren finds some comfort with the lovely widow-hairdresser Vera (Laurie). Then older sis Rae (Amis) shows up with her new Yankee hubby Billy (MacLachlan). There's not a lot of plot or crisis to this story; it's eminently forgettable, but a lovely time while it rolls -- especially whenever that irresistable master Finney is on view.
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The review of this Movie prepared by David Loftus
