touching and intelligent film

This film is full of the complexity of life and of relationships, focusing mainly on mothers and daughters, but also touching on interactions between men and women and between friends. I first saw this film on its release over 10 years ago, and I really enjoyed it then. Now that I am a mother myself, I have found added depth and I understand parts of it much more. It is a pretty faithful adaptation of the book, which is among the best 50 or so that I have read.

The only two complaints I have are: 1) that it had to leave out many good parts of the book, much of which gives added depth to the mother-daughter relationships of the younger generation and explains why some of the daughters act as they do, and 2) there was a change which perhaps made the ending to one daughter's story more palatable to Hollywood viewers. I won't say what so as not to spoil the story.

Nevertheless, this film is excellent in its own right and well worth watching. But be warned, if you are a mother OR father, you are very likely to cry (or at least get misty eyed) in a few places.