Columbus fails to portray real life in 'Stepmom' melodrama

By Rayya Makarim

JAKARTA (JP): She's a fashion photographer, she's trendy, hip, she just moved in with her boyfriend and she has a cool name. For Isabel (Julia Roberts), everything is going well, except that she is on the way to being the evil stepmother to her boyfriend's two children. Chris Columbus, who has brought to the screen such originals as Mrs. Doubtfire and Home Alone, is back with the rather unspectacular Stepmom.

Luke (Ed Harris) is a successful businessman with a failed marriage to Jackie (Susan Sarandon). Isabel is his young, career- minded new girlfriend. Isabel and the children, 12-year-old Anna (Jena Malone) and seven-year-old Ben (Liam Aiken), love Luke, but the two parties do not even like, much less love, each other. No matter how much Isabel tries, she cannot manage to win over the kids, even with furry puppy bribes. When Jackie, the perfect housewife and supermom gets involved, things become even harder for Isabel until, of course, Jackie learns that she has cancer. Suddenly, the pressure is on for everybody to start loving each other and getting along.

While Isabel finally succeeds as the "kinda cool" stepmother, Columbus fails in creating a movie about real life with all the laughs and tears of real families. The script, written by a squadron of five writers, is a hodgepodge of cliches, bad melodrama and pitiful dialog. Having blinking boards reading "CRY" would have been subtler than the way Columbus handled this project.

Terminal illness in movies almost always reunites everyone for a more or less happy ending (remember Terms of Endearment?). However, when it is shoved in your face in so many "death- explaining" scenes (and there is a limit to death analogies), it can get a little nauseating. With such a terrific cast, it is a pity the writers were not bold enough to take more chances with the story. Even with good acting, nobody can save dialog clunkers like "I have their past, and you will have their future" or "It should have been me instead of you".

The acting could also have been improved if the director knew less of what he wanted. Unfortunately, Columbus knew exactly what he wanted and packaged his characters and their environments so tightly that they had no room to move. Distinguishing between Isabel and Jackie's world was apparently imperative. Luke lives with Isabel in a New York loft. Everything in the kitchen is modern, stainless steel and chrome. The place is uncluttered and extremely stylish.

Jackie, on the other hand, lives in a house in the suburbs. "It absolutely had to have the look and warmth of a traditional family home," said production designer Stuart Wurtzel. Hence, the farmhouse dining table, checked fabrics and porch.

Then there is wardrobe. Isabel looks slick in mostly black/gray leather and denim, while Jackie wears brighter colors (the homey country look). "Jackie's outfits become drained of color as the story unfolds, reflecting her illness, and as Isabel becomes closer to the family and more accepted by the children, her clothes lighten up," vouched costume designer Joseph Aulisi. Everything is perfectly set up, and leaves nothing to the imagination.

The only exuberance present in Stepmom is the wonderful job done by the kids whose characters are clearly less contrived than the adult roles. Anna reminds us of the Bernice character in Forest Whitaker's Hope Floats, with a greater range of emotions. Little Ben, who really believes that he was born a magician, adds color and humor to the often somber and angry Anna.

Drama is not Columbus' forte, and maybe the film would have worked better as a comedy. Even then, nothing can disguise a poor script. With an added edge or a different angle, Stepmom could have been a hit because it deals with themes that are almost always effective, although also more often than not predictable.