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By Derrick Bang
Enterprise film critic
Although director Steven Soderberg’s gentle little drama has its charms, it’s more of an acting exercise than an actual film.
As revealed in the production notes, Deborah Eisenberg’s “script” was more an outline: the broad strokes of the story, with its key plot beats, and a general sense of the primary characters. Most dialogue was left to actor improv, which was fine-tuned during production.
Seasoned pros like Meryl Streep and Dianne Wiest clearly had no trouble with this approach. The rest of the cast … leave something to be desired.
New York-based author Alice Hughes (Streep) is celebrated for two novels: her debut, “You Always, You Never,” which brought her a Pulitzer; and the more recent “A Function of the Body,” which has just earned the Footling Prize. She regards the latter as more prestigious because it’s bestowed by writers: an honor, therefore, coming from her peers.