25 years after the events of Chantilly Lace, the girls meet again to clean out the house of recently deceased matriarch Ruth - all the girls save for Natalie (JoBeth Williams) of course, who has died in the earlier movie but serves as narrator here, and Lizzie (Ally Sheedy), who just couldn't leave home ... and maybe also wasn't too crazy about meeting her sister Val (Jill Eikenberry). But the others are here, Val, Rheza (Lindsay Crouse), Shelley (Patricia Richardson), Maggie (Talia Shire), Hannah (Helen Slater), plus Hannah's 25 year old daughter Nat (Naaji Sky Adzimah), and they use this first get-together in years to catch up, reminisce on old times, but also trying to come to grips with ageing and maybe not having achieved everything they intended to. Over the course of the year, they would also meet up two more times, once for Rheza's retirement party, once for Christmas at Hannah's, whee are some serious topics are brought up, including sexual abuse and dementia - but the more serious the topic the stronger the bond between our friends grows ...

Now to properly appreciate this movie, it probably helps to have seen Chantilly Lace first (which I regret to admit I have not), as many events from that movie are at least alluded to here while other points seem to come full circle only now. But even without prior knowledge, this film has quite a bit to offer, including first rate acting, a mostly unsentimental approach to things, and some hard-hitting plotpoints rather beautifully embedded in the rather light-footed narrative flow. And a suitably subtle directorial effort only helps to make this into a very touching movie.

review © by Mike Haberfelner

 

Feeling lucky? Want to search any of my partnershops yourself for more, better results? (commissions earned)

The links below will take you just there!!!

Find Chantilly Bridge at the amazons ...   amazon.com   amazon.co.uk   amazon.de Looking for imports? Find Chantilly Bridge here ...   eThaiCD.com Your shop for all things Thai

Thanks for watching !!!