neumu [ cinematronic ]




	Divine Secrets Of The Ya-Ya Sisterhood
	Callie Khouri Sandra Bullock, Ashley Judd, Ellen Burstyn, Maggie Smith, Fionnula Flanagan, Shirley Knight, James Garner, Angus Macfadyen 2002		Serious chick flick. Some shortchanged secondary characters hamper "Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood," but it's so unabashedly manipulative, it may reduce macho men to weeping. Director Callie Khouri's adaptation of two interrelated best-sellers by Rebecca Wells introduces successful playwright Sidda Lee Walker (Sandra Bullock), who has used her contentious relationship with her mother, Vivi, as the crux of a new play. Mama (Ellen Burstyn), a Southern hell's-belle, is infuriated; her lifelong friends (Maggie Smith, Fionnula Flanagan, Shirley Knight) intervene to repair the broken mother-daughter connection and mollify the Walkers' long-suffering men (James Garner, Angus Macfadyen). Which leads us to decades-spanning flashbacks about how vivacious young Vivi (Ashley Judd, in her best role since "Ruby in Paradise") got to be such a pill. The whole she-bang is dominated by top actresses going slightly overboard with the emotional weight and brittle humor of the colorful lives on display.