My wife and I watched this at home on BluRay from our public library. We both enjoyed it as a great character study with a few life lessons.
I have long been a Shirley MacLaine fan, now in her 80s she delivers a spot-on performance as Harriet, formerly successful businesswoman and now very wealthy in Southern California. She has a very controlling personality, probably obsessive-compulsive, and one day while reading some obituaries she decides she doesn't want to leave hers to chance so she looks up the local newspaper reporter who writes them.
Harriet has long been a well-funded advertiser and is important to the newspaper so she has no difficulty convincing the editor to honor her wishes. The obituary writer is Amanda Seyfried as Anne. She has many of Harriet's characteristics but is not yet confident enough to write the stories that she really wants to write.
Harriet has analyzed obituaries and decided that there are 4 key elements and she is missing one, the unexpected feat for the obit's intro. So she decides she will bridge that gap by finding a disadvantaged "at risk" child to mentor. She finds AnnJewel Lee Dixon as the charming but foul-mouthed Brenda. She too has many of Harriet's characteristics.
So, as the stories move forward it centers on this rag-tag trio who seem to have nothing in common but end up helping each other realize some changes that each needs to make. And, as Harriet is diagnosed with congestive heart failure the writing of her obituary takes on fresh importance.
I have long been a Shirley MacLaine fan, now in her 80s she delivers a spot-on performance as Harriet, formerly successful businesswoman and now very wealthy in Southern California. She has a very controlling personality, probably obsessive-compulsive, and one day while reading some obituaries she decides she doesn't want to leave hers to chance so she looks up the local newspaper reporter who writes them.
Harriet has long been a well-funded advertiser and is important to the newspaper so she has no difficulty convincing the editor to honor her wishes. The obituary writer is Amanda Seyfried as Anne. She has many of Harriet's characteristics but is not yet confident enough to write the stories that she really wants to write.
Harriet has analyzed obituaries and decided that there are 4 key elements and she is missing one, the unexpected feat for the obit's intro. So she decides she will bridge that gap by finding a disadvantaged "at risk" child to mentor. She finds AnnJewel Lee Dixon as the charming but foul-mouthed Brenda. She too has many of Harriet's characteristics.
So, as the stories move forward it centers on this rag-tag trio who seem to have nothing in common but end up helping each other realize some changes that each needs to make. And, as Harriet is diagnosed with congestive heart failure the writing of her obituary takes on fresh importance.