Enora Maurer

United States
Director: Peter Hedges
Starring: Julia Roberts (Holly), Lucas Hedges (Ben), Courtney B. Vance (Neal), Kathryn Newton (Ivy)
Genre: Drama
Running time: 103 minutes

A Christmas movie, which shows real life for a change. But I must say that the only Christmas movie I watched this year is Netflix’s romance Princess Switch (2018) with Vanessa Hudgens and Sam Palladio, so of course compared to that, almost any movie shows real life more accurately.

Julia Roberts plays an unconditionally loving mother, who is yet deeply hurt due to her son’s drug addiction. I like her performance in it, her conflicted emotions and despair come across well in her facial expressions, which, I find, have become more sincere, touched by life, if I may say – of course she has aged since Pretty Woman (1990) and Notting Hill (1999), which I recently rewatched. But in my opinion, she has done so very much to her benefit.

A patchwork family, seemingly stable, dutifully attending Church is yet deeply emotionally traumatized by the previous behavior of the eldest son. I found the movie very touching and felt attached to all the different characters, as each one goes through different feelings that are yet so comprehensible. I will only say that even though it is hard to watch, as it is a sad movie, I managed to watch it by myself. Hopefully this can help you enough (and won’t spoil you), if you’re not sure you’re gentle mind can manage a drama.