a play down and but still gritty and mostly honest look at how woman urvive our male orient and female knee bend society . gena rowlands be the light in this film a the matriarch figure to 3 girl . her own and deby ( thurman ) and deby best friend and beth ( lewis ) and her daughter and amber . gena find love late in life only to discover she wait too long for nick ( play tenderly by ben gazarra ) and nice guy and deby can not stand . ( read jealous ) beth becomes attract to and sort of involve with the bartender at the local ( read dead ) bar . deby pick up reluctant nick at same bar and invent a possible future with him to all her girlfriend and whose constant pressure of question concern their imminent engagement threaten deby sanity and self esteem . it seem her dad leave her and her mom early on and take with him her budding confidence . a the girl struggle with life issue they discover their great strength lay in their own closeness and no matter how vulnerable that also make them to each other .