Stepmom (1998)

Hot-shot photographer Isabel (Julia Roberts) tries to get on with the kids of her new partner Luke (Ed Harris) from his previous marriage to Jackie (Susan Sarandon). Then Jackie, the perfect mother, is diagnosed with cancer and Isabel, who Jackie distrusts and resents, needs to step in and take a greater role in the children’s lives. 

It’s a reasonable premise and the three leads are all charismatic and watchable. What slightly ruins the film is the presence of two child actors (Jena Malone and Liam Aiken) who seem a little too self-conscious and self-aware. I never really believed they were real people with real feelings – perhaps because they speak lines that were clearly written for them by adults. 

The emotional draw is watching the two women come to terms with their situations and with each other, which of course they eventually do. No one seems to mind that Ed Harris isn’t around much. Also, as in so many films, the characters’ wealth and upward mobility is never in question. Jackie lives in a mansion that seems to get bigger every time we see it. That’s not really a flaw of the film – rich people have problems, too – but it does seem to lessen any drama that the script attempts to build up.