Sherwin (David Oyelowo) and Fiona (Hani Furstenberg) are a mixed race couple living in Atlanta. When Fiona dies in an auto accident, Lucinda (Dianne Wiest), Fiona's mother, Invites Sherwin to come up to Maine for a bit. Why? I have no idea. And why he went is even more puzzling. Lucinda has cancer and is combative much of the time, with moments of near pleasantry. The film is a drama of his stay, discovering his wife's past, and mom's apparently trying to cope with her daughter's death, one that she was not as close as she could have been.DRAMA SPOILER: Of course IT does come up and is perhaps the crux of the issue. Fiona, the ever liberal, chose to be with a black man as a way of rebellion. Lucinda and Sherwin try to understand Fiona and come to terms with her death.The film was all light drama. The acting was good, but the film dealt a lot with grief and attempts at Maniac humor were light.Guide: F-word. No sex or nudity.

Let's say the inciting incident (or rather accident) happens early on in the movie. And while it is always important to know someone to mourn them (especially the way she's being mourned here), we do have to do that while on the journey. The journey of moving on, which may sound like a pun, but is anything but funny.So this is full on Drama and anyone who lost someone dear to them, by whatever circumstances, should be able to empathize even without a deep connection from the get go. Still this is heavy and the question is if you want to watch something like that. If you do there are the actors who really do their part as good as possible. Dianne West and our main character are the driving forces, but it's also nice to see Rosie Perez back in Action. Decent enough, if you can cope with it

It is always refreshing to see a grief-themed movie that is not sugarcoated because losing a loved one WILL irrevocably change you, and it WILL cause you to make choices you might not otherwise make - in this case, spending time with your mother-in-law who never liked you, anyways. Both actors were phenomenal in their portrayal of pain, anger and loneliness. I would have liked to see more background into how Lucinda became so cold - was she always like that, even before she got sick? What were the reasons the mother- daughter relationship was so strained? Why did Lucinda never like the husband? Many questions, but at the end of the day we realize in the throes of grief sometimes anyone will do - even if they are not kind to us, it beats being alone in a room with grief, loneliness and despair. We also come to realize Lucinda is not a wooden statue after all - she is quite frightened, and while she has a caregiver, she feels very alone. We come to accept her cold and sometimes cruel behavior as she is in the throes of grief as well as cancer. You get a free pass when you are grieving or when you are ill - it's the human thing to do. Ultimately, this movie teaches us (if you don't already know from personal experience), that grief is all-consuming - there is no room for anyone else's pain - only yours. If you ever lost a loved one, you know what I am talking about. Worth watching, but may leave you unsettled.

The reviews on it were right. The film is all about David Oyelowo and Dianne Wiest bouncing things off each other, and it's got that going for it, that two such great actors can hold down a film all by themselves, but you do have to like Oyelowo and Wiest a lot to really like the movie.It's one of those movies that does not really have a point or expresses it in such low key that only someone watching who has been in that position could really reflect on what is going on and fully feel the emotion.It's not that pin point of a situation. A man loses his wife in a car accident and the only one who can relate is his Mother-In-Law, but she is a pain in the neck even after her child's death (although she's dying from cancer so give her a break). This is a harsh situation while they're grievingAlso thought Rosie Perez was great too in the small role she had. Wish it had more of her because I like seeing her on the screen a lot.It was good that the director and writer did have three really good actors to implement their material. They were the redeemable factor in the mediocre film.