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Review

Gena Rowlands stars as a beautifully coiffed, ball-busting matriarch, Brooke Shields is her caustic daughter and Gregg Araki veteran James Duval is a young gay artist caught up in family intrigues in this wonderful, star-studded drama. The setting is the lush country homes of Westchester County where Laura (Rowlands), a rich widow and one never fully clothed until she has a cocktail in hand, awaits her daughter and her boyfriend for the weekend. While down the road, Marion (Unger) and her husband John (Harris), still mourning over the recent death of her brother Tony, entertain Lyle (Conrad), Tony’s former lover. Tensions rise when Lyle brings his new boyfriend Robert (Duvall) along. What begins as a pleasant weekend retreat, soon escalates into something much more vitriolic as familial resentments, bitter loneliness, sexual turmoil and repressed grief rise to the surface. Rowlands is a marvel as the talkative, power-queen diva and is ably matched by Shields as a daughter who will do anything to provoke a reaction. Also of note is Kara Unger, whose serene, loving façade crumbles before our eyes.