poor shirley maclaine try hard to lend some gravitas to this mawkish and gag inducing feel good movie and but she trample by the run away sentimentality of a film that not the least bit ground in reality . this be direct by curtis hanson . do he have a lobotomy since we last heard from him . hanson can do effective drama sprinkle with comedy and a evidence by wonder boy . so i do not know what happen to him here . this be the kind of movie that doesn not want to accept that life be messy and fussy and and that neat and tidy ending ( however implausible they might be ) might make for a nice closing shot and but come across a utterly phony if the people watch the film have be through anything remotely like what the character in the film go through . my wife and i make a game of call out the plot point before they occur e. g. the old man go to teach her to read and then drop dead . bingo . this be one of those movie where the character give little speech summarize their emotional problem and make you wonder why they still have emotional problem if theyre that aware of what cause them . toni collette ( a fine actress and by the way and and one of my favorite if not give a lot to work with here ) and give a speech early on about why she buy so many shoe and never wear them and spell out in flash neon the film awkward connect motif . at that moment and i know what i be in for and and the film be a downward spiral from there . grade represent c .