Edie Falco plays a matriarch bending over backward for her grown children in this uneven character study.
Early in Barbara Loden’s classic indie film “Wanda” (1971), the emotionally dysregulated title character hitches a ride to the courthouse to surrender custody of her children.
It is perhaps with a wink and a nudge that the protagonist of “I’ll Be Right There” shares a name with Loden’s character; in this sappy ode to supermoms, just spending a day apart from her grown children is enough to give Wanda (Edie Falco) a conniption.
Directed by Brendan Walsh, the movie opens on Wanda escorting her family members through a series of minor crises. She sits with her mother, Grace (Jeannie Berlin), as a doctor delivers health news. Her pregnant daughter, Sarah (Kayli Carter), expects hand-holding through an anxiety attack. And her ne’er-do-well son, Mark (Charlie Tahan), must be bailed out after a mishap lands him in jail.
Set in rural New York, “I’ll Be Right There” aspires to show how, even in a family of adults, matriarchs can come to act as a chauffeur, benefactor, peacekeeper and security blanket all in one. But the movie’s bigger revelation is how these relationships sometimes slip into codependence. For Wanda, being needed by her mom and kids gives life a purpose that she otherwise struggles to find.
The screenplay, by Jim Beggarly, is uneven, and many of the movie’s jokes are spoiled by a conservative strain that finds Sarah hellbent against giving birth out of wedlock and Grace making light of Wanda sleeping with a woman. Even as the gifted actresses trade jabs and punchlines gamely, the moments leave a sour taste.
I’ll Be Right There
Not rated. Running time: 1 hour 38 minutes. In theaters.
Source: Movies - nytimes.com
