Stepmom

Name: Stepmom
Genre: Drama, Comedy
Released: December 25, 1998
Duration: 124 min
Rating: 58
Cast: Ed Harris, Julia Roberts, Susan Sarandon

1998

METASCORE

Mixed or average reviews based on 21 Critic Reviews

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USER SCORE

Generally favorable reviews based on 35 Ratings

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7.3

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7.3	Your Score
7.3	User Score Generally favorable reviews based on 35 Ratings

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Stepmom

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Movie Details & Credits

TriStar Pictures | Release Date: December 25, 1998 | PG-13

Starring: Ed Harris, Julia Roberts, Susan Sarandon

Summary: This tearjerker centers on the relationship between a divorced mother (Sarandon) and the new woman in her ex-husband's life (Roberts).

Director: Chris Columbus

Genre(s): Drama, Comedy

Rating: PG-13

Runtime: 124 min

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Critic Reviews

New Times (L.A.) Jean Oppenheimer

A genuinely affecting movie that approaches its adult themes with intelligence, maturity, and rare authenticity. Read full review

Ruthe Stein

A film that's sad and poignant but not without humorous moments. Read full review

Janet Maslin

To its credit, the film doesn't sugarcoat its women too monstrously, and it lets real conflicts and opinions occasionally creep in. Read full review

Lisa Alspector

In a lumbering way, this depressing feel-good drama about the impact of cancer on two children, their divorced parents, and the father's girlfriend offers some useful insights into how feelings of jealousy and betrayal can limit the potential of family relationships. Read full review

Amy Taubin

Loathsome though Stepmom is, the eternally coltish Roberts is always a pleasure to watch and Sarandon's mordant wit occasionally comes to the fore. Read full review

Roger Ebert

The skill of the actors, who invest their characters with small touches of humanity, is useful in distracting us from the emotional manipulations, but it's like they're brightening separate rooms of a haunted house. Read full review

James Berardinelli

This is the kind of tearjerker that will cause audience members to cry, but only because they paid hard-earned money to see it. Read full review

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User Reviews

LeoTs3181983

Sep 3, 2010

This one of Julia Roberts better,newer movies. It's not like her take offs of 1940s romance thrillers made in the late 80s and early 90s where the woman would scream"I THOUGHT YOU LOVED ME!" at her man.

0 of 1 users found this helpful01

juliej.

Jul 10, 2007

A great movie that shows you can get along with almost anyone if you really try. Julia Roberts and Susan Sarandon are both excellent. I've watched it dozens of times and my 4 year old grandson loves it as well.

0 of 1 users found this helpful

Trev29

Sep 2, 2012

This was quite a touching movie with great performances from its lead actresses. It was nice to watch the characters have fun at times. Great character building story.

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

DogeGamer2015

Jul 18, 2021

Es una película muy conmovedora y sentimental; las actuaciones de Julia Roberts y Susan Sarandon son excelentes; es recomendable.

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

wendyisabigail

Mar 6, 2018

On the surface, Julia Robert's character seems more likeable. She is gorgeous and keeps her cool unlike her counterpart. However, the internal conflicts of a divorced, cancer patient portrayed by Susan Sarandon are so real, I couldn't help siding with her even during her darkest moments.

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

FilipeNeto

Nov 2, 2019

A movie that works best on TV, but it has been forgotten over time.

This one-hundred-percent family movie is about divorce and how families rebuild later. Essentially, it's a movie about losses, and how they are surmountable. Directed by Chris Columbus and dedicated by him to his lateA movie that works best on TV, but it has been forgotten over time.

This one-hundred-percent family movie is about divorce and how families rebuild later. Essentially, it's a movie about losses, and how they are surmountable. Directed by Chris Columbus and dedicated by him to his late mother, who had died of cancer the previous year, the film also deals with cancer and death. To some extent, it may even have been a way for the director to deal with grief.

The script is simple: After divorcing Jackie, Luke decides to date photographer Isabel. But she is not welcomed by his ex-wife, who declares war on her, nor by the two children they have had, and who definitely don't want her around, seeing her as their mother's illegitimate substitute in their father's life. Isabel, a woman who never wanted to be a mother, tries to deal with children in the best way but makes mistakes and is heavily reprimanded. But everything changes when Jackie is diagnosed with cancer. The disease forces everyone to review how they relate and ultimately drives Jackie closer to Isabel.

At cast level, the two lead actresses take the film back on their own: Julia Roberts is a good actress and is in good shape here, and Susan Sarandon also does a good job, although her character is obnoxious and cynical most of the time. The end makes us feel that she has received back the bad karma she has planted. Ed Harris does what he needs to do, but his character only exists because he really had to exist, and hardly appears in most of the movie. It's a female movie. Children, of course, have a good participation as well, but they just do childish things, with the exception of Jena Malone, who is old enough to give us something else - and she can do it.

Personally, I found this movie decent enough for the TV as it reminds me of movies that are made from scratch for the small screen. There is no cinematic sense in the way everything was conceived. I've never seen him in the movie theater but I think it would go a long way ... it's a wrong-thinking movie with great actors that seem to me to be underused most of the time. Perhaps that is why it has been forgotten and, more than twenty years after its release, almost no one remembers it.… Expand

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

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95	#95 Best Movie of 1998
73	#73 Most Discussed Movie of 1998
11	#11 Most Shared Movie of 1998