"Now and Then" A Good Summer Movie for Mothers and Daughters
Four 12-year old girls live in a small suburban town in Indiana in 1970, with very different home environments, spend a summer on a journey that will have a defining impact on them for many years to come.
Roberta, played by Christina Ricci, lives with her father and brothers. Her mother died several years earlier and she has started developing physically into a young woman but she is not ready emotionally for this change unlike Chrissy, played by Ashleigh Aston Moore, who is not developing fast enough. Chrissy's parents are rarely home and she uses alot of her alone time to imagine and prepare for her future as an actress. Roberta tapes down her developing breast and Chrissy adds improvisions to her slow developing breast.
Samantha, played by Gaby Hoffman, has a younger sister and her parents are on the verge of divorce. She and her sister lay in bed at night listening to their arguing parents whereas Teeny, played by Thora Birch, seems to have the perfect family. Her biggest problem is her desire to over eat.
The tween years are very formative years in a young girl's life and many times it is the little things or the small foxes that play a role in shaping future decision making and prioritizing of what is important as she travels through life. A fleeting comment that she grabs hold of or how she perceives what is going on with her parents can simmer inside her and be a key ingredient in the upcoming "dish," a term used by men decades ago to describe young women.
The movie opens up with the four friends who are now adults honoring a committment they made to each other "back then." Teeny is about to have a baby and they have come to be with her for the birth of her baby. Their reunion ignites the memory of that eventful summer in 1970.
Situations are much different today, now, than they were, then, but how and what young girls feel is very much the same. Through this movie mothers remember some of the emotions, fantasies, and thoughts that they had when they were younger and daughters identify with some of the experiences that the four girls are sharing through this movie.
Did you experience lack of understanding from your mother during your teen years?
Could you share your innermost thoughts with your mother as a teen?
Do you believe that you would have made different decisions during those yeares if the conflicts between you and your mother were not there?
Watching this movie together, mothers and daughters may find some common ground to stand together on. These are the years when mothers and daughters loose ground and possibly sharing familiar and simular feelings may at least bridge some of the distance that is starting to take place between them.
"Now and Then" is warm, heartfelt, funny, a little suspensful, and just a good movie.