the story of a woman ( ann ) on her death bed and her two daughter ( nina and constance ) and her thought about her past . the flashback be concern a weekend where young ann be in the wedding of her friend lila . at the wedding she meet harris who will impact her for the rest of her life . through all the ups and down of her professional and family life she remember him a her true love . her daughter constance be old and more responsible and a mother of two and have thing together . nina jump from boyfriend to boyfriend and job to job and be unsure of her direction in life . first of all the good . the period detail in the movie be great . the dress and hair and car and house and etc . really put you in another time and place . and there be some very quality act in the movie . vanessa redgrave be quite good at portray the main character and her fragile mental state a her life come to an end . claire dane be beautiful and do a great job a the main character when she be young ( and she be an outstanding singer ) . hugh dancy bring a lot of life to the character of lila brother buddy . now for the bad and which unfortunately be everything else . thing constantly disrupt the story a it be be unfold for u . the chemistry between young ann and buddy be great . they have fun and dance . then . you be suppose to believe that she doesn not really like him more than a friend and that his pin only annoy her . and i think the whole and he might be gay thing be out of the blue and do not serve a purpose . then we have harris . the character act wooden and creepy . have this be another genre and you would have know that harris be the serial killer from the get go . it be an unbelievable stretch to think that all these girl love him so ( but they do portray the other guy a pretty lame to try and help him out ) . and the grand problem of all . why do not ann and harris get together . they fall for each other . they have this great night of sex in an old dirty gardener shack and come home to find out about buddy tragic end and then . nothing . they meet up a few year later and get all misty eye about each other and i couldn not help but wonder why . why . the movie doesn not let you know why they be force to marry other people and so i have a hard time feeling sorry for them . the part of the story in the present be fairly boring . the cliché good daughter and the cliché bad daughter . nina change over the course of the movie but i be not sure why . i be not sure what convince her to change her life . there be a touching scene where the daughter be connect that coincides with old ann dream she chase a butterfly . it be really lame and embarrass . there be no mistake and ann advises at u . the statement doesn not ring true with the story . and it doesn not ring true after see the movie and wish they hadn not waste the talent of such good actor .