this be a great woman picture that be also very entertain for anybody . someone mention that julia robert offer up a convincing southern accent . well hell bell and she from smyrna and georgia . how convincing do she have to be . set in kentucky horse country and julia robert play a young wife and mother who run her father ( robert duvall ) horse business . she a fine wife and mother and and a good business woman . one day while drive in town and she see her husband ( dennis quaid ) kiss a pretty woman in a red dress outside his office building . bust and quaid find himself kneed in he groin by his potty mouth sister in law ( the adorably gusty kyra sedgewick ) and throw out of the house by his furious wife . her husband infidelity turn her contained and comfy world upside down . daddy ( who have his own issue with infidelity ) be uncomfortable with his daughter anger and insensitively insist that she overlook the problem and get on with her life . mama ( the great gena rowlands ) who have be look the other way for year and and be not in a position to offer any advice and tell her daughter that southern woman have be put up with their philandering husband for year . sedgewick can only offer her own withering scorn to her parent ( she live in a house on her father farm with no visible mean of support and therefore be beholden to her parent ) and while she cluck sympathetically with her sister . meanwhile and robert character have to move on . her daughter and an excellent young rider and be nudge her to compete in horse competition and which be be reluctant to allow . she confuse about her parent separation . julia be run the business and but her father constantly interfere and make her management decision . the woman in her local junior league be condescend and smug in the knowledge that their marriage be safe a hers be not . robert have a brilliant comic moment tell her sister that their husband be cheat on them too . a contrite quaid be on a mission to reconcile with his wife and but she be resist . take the advice of her beloved aunt and she mildly poison her husband dinner in an attempt to teach him a lesson he would not soon forget . you know it only a matter of time before she forgive him and but you enjoy her insistence that this be a serious breach of trust in their marriage and not to be ignore lightly and or forget . the film reach a very satisfactory conclusion . daddy be finally make to pay the consequence for his own extra marital dalliance when rowlands finally lock him out of their house . and he finally learn to respect his daughter and realize the psychic damage his flagrant misogyny have cause . this be a quiet gem of a movie and one of julia best . the cast be expert and hallstrom direction be fluid and detailed . khalie couri screenplay be alert and adult . an early review chastise the robert character for poison her husband . she do not kill him and nor do she intend to . but i think it quite appropriate for her to make him feel some of the pain he cause her . at the very least and he should have be discreet . act out his affair in public be just ask for trouble . and the woman in this family make their men grow up . a throughly enjoyable movie .