Grace Bichon (Julia Roberts) seems to have a happy life with husband Eddie (Dennis Quaid) and daughter Caroline. She dutifully does work with the other wives in the Charity League and runs her father's horse stable. Then she catches Eddie with his mistress on the streets. She leaves with her daughter to stay with her father Wyly King (Robert Duvall), mother Georgia (Gena Rowlands), and sister Emma Rae King (Kyra Sedgwick). There is a horse jumping Grand Prix coming up. As the couple toys with divorce, Grace is pursued by a suitor. Her parents push her to stay in her marriage and her sister joins her in anger.How one takes this movie depends on how one views cheating. The standard female empowerment would require the wife to overcome the cheating husband and find a new man or find her inner self. This one takes a different tact and it could annoy some people. The actors are solid. Their rom-com personna may not fit the more complicated take on cheating.

This movie had all the essential elements at hand, but somehow it doesn't come together. The main reason is the poor direction by Lasse Hallström. He has done solid movies before, I'm a big fan of Chocolat, but unfortunately he comes off as an amateur here. The viewer never gets a feel for the "geography" of the setting. Important little interactions are barely visible -- for example, when Jamie offers Grace another drink, and she grabs his, it is a potentially comical and telling moment that isn't even on screen. (I couldn't figure it out until watching carefully during the second viewing -- did she grab the bottle? did she take her empty glass? Eventually it appears she has a glass in hand with liquor still in it.) The little girl's acting seemed to be left to chance, and chance didn't do a good job for her. There is frequently a lack of realistic presentation in the sequence of action. One minute Eddie can't breathe after being kicked in the balls, 10 seconds later he is walking normally into the kitchen. The potentially hilarious scene at the women's "cookbook" meeting, when Grace demands to know who else has slept with her husband, was almost ruined by Hallstrom's failure to coordinate line-response. The audience gasps before Grace finishes speaking the essential words in her question. In fact, that whole scene, with its unrealistic, one-dimensional characters, ultimately comes across as condescending toward women.Another fundamental problem with this movie is the plot. Callie Khouri is nothing less than a brilliant screenwriter, but I think she handicapped herself here with post-T and L fears of accusations of "man-hating". Understandable, given the public platform given to all the scary men loudly objecting to the depiction of a woman shooting a rapist ["dear God!"] Callie Khouri's strength is her honest, cut-the-gloss depictions of painful male-female relationships, along with the comedy she brings forth through allowing women an instinctual response to abuse. In this script, however, those moments of comedic and tragic honesty are kept in cages, so that there are little gems scattered throughout, but the movie as a whole does not reflect her native talents.

Senseless plot, forgettable characters, and no redeeming value. The only reason it gets a three in my book is because I saw it on a date with the love of my life. Indeed, this is proof positive that even bad films can spawn relationships that last a lifetime! The very idea that someone could actually forgive someone for cheating simply because she sees him riding a horse is simply crazy at best, if it were that easy I'd have bought a horse eons ago! Also, some of the camera angles were interesting at first, but as the plot and the overall content of the film left much to be desired, the angles began to really get on my nerves after a while. Had the film given more in the areas of plot, content, and believable, likable characters, I probably would saying what a innovative genius the director was. Anyways, pop this this one in at 2am after you've missed several buses to dreamland. I guarantee you'll be on the the next bus.

First let me start off by saying that Julia Roberts is from Georgia...Her accent is real! This was a disappointing movie. Julia Roberts and Kyra Sedgwick have great chemistry as sisters and they LOOK like they could actually be related. Dennis Quaid-check, Robert Duvall-check, Gena Rowlands-check...Cast is awesome. Writing is sassy and on the money. The problem is the way the story turns on it's head. When Grace poisons her husband it is not at all funny..and takes the story in another direction. We think we are watching a movie about this lying cheating lout who does his woman wrong and her questioning her life and her choices afterward. We feel bad for HIM when he makes it sound like she drove him into another woman's arms because she didn't give him enough affection. She actually feels bad, but it is already too late, as she has already made him sick from the poison. He decides he doesn't want her back after all and goes ahead and gets a nasty lawyer. Along the way her mom (Rowland)decides to take action on her husband (duvall) who has been fooling around for years. Not making much sense here. All this surrounds a equestrian competition that is supposed to bring these people together. Kind of stupid. I also want to bring attention to the fact that Julia Roberts was about 27 when she made this. Too young to have this older kid, and Dennis Quaid looks a good 10 years her senior, and they were in college together?? Kyra Sedgwick is going for over the top sassy here...We get the point after she knees Quaid in the jewels early on..yes yes she is a tough cookie. All that said, I will watch Julia Roberts in anything. I am her target demographic after all. Her most unwatchable movie is still watchable to me on a snowy Sunday afternoon such as today.