Single mom Dottie Ingels (Julie Kavner) sells cosmetics in a department store and dreams of being a big comedian on the Tonight Show. She lives in Queens with her two daughters Erica (Samantha Mathis) and Opal (Gaby Hoffmann) in Aunt Harriet's house. When Aunt Harriet died leaving everything to Dottie, she sells everything to move to NYC. She works her way in small bars. She gets Arnold Moss (Dan Aykroyd) as her agent or at least his assistant Claudia Curtis (Carrie Fisher). She starts traveling and the girls are left at home.The big problem is that I don't find Julie Kavner funny in this or that she has a funny act. This movie is desperate for somebody with standup experience. She needs an act that is actually funny. Samantha Mathis is playing an Annie Hall type as a teenager. The standup life seems so unrealistic. If I could ignore her standup, this could be a cute Nora Ephron movie especially considering that this is her directorial debut. It would be much better to concentrate on Erica's POV which has the possibility of skipping more of the mom's act.

Julie Kavner of the "Rhoda" television show is just wonderful here. She is basically a Jewish Phyllis Diller who gains fame at the same time she neglects her daughters.This film is really a tribute to the women who became stand up comics years before.As we see in so many films, success has its disadvantages as well, as both young girls leave in a frenzy to seek out the father who abandoned them years before. After seeing him, they realize that a mother is still a mother.Carly Simon sings the background music throughout the film and she is an absolute treat to hear.

I do not know why this movie is rated so low. It's an endearing and funny film told to the audience from the perspective of 2 people: The mother and the eldest daughter. The mother, Dottie, played nicely by Julie Kavner, is a single mother of 2 who is working hard to support her daughters as well as to try her hand at stand-up comedy. Kavner, best known now as the voice of Marge Simpson on the TV show The Simpsons, is actually quite funny as she uses her entire body in her work. And it's nice to see someone make it in a field that seems, at least for women, to only reward those who fit a specific physical model. In this movie she's perfect. It's like the role was made for her. Samantha Mathis, as the eldest daughter Erica, plays the role of the angst-filled teenager perfectly. What to do when you love your mother so much but she causes so much grief and embarrassment? And Gaby Hoffman as the youngest, Opal, is right on, as usual. The eye rolling, the mixing up of what people said (fidgety versus frigid), and her total faith in her mother and sister ring true. Dan Aykroyd as The Moss, though his part is small, works well, especially in the the scene where Dottie is fighting with Erica and all he does is sit quietly (and maybe eat more paper!) as the "tornadoes" whoosh by. And one of the funniest scenes ever is the typical "first time" between Erica and Jordan (played so well by Danny Zorn). While this scene is happening the background music is Tchaikovsky's Romeo and Juliet, which makes it even funnier and made me laugh so hard I almost fell on the floor, especially when it was all over and Jordan says, It's over and Erica says, It is? And a quick poll of my male friends and husband verified that the experience with the condom(s) was right on the money, even down to the facial expressions. A refreshing movie with very few flaws with a good script and a good cast.

A charming little movie directed and co-written by the brilliant Nora Ephron. Well drawn characters, inventive script and first-class acting throughout by an ensemble led by Julie Kavner and featuring Carrie. Fisher and Dan Aykroyd. With unusual insight and intelligence, it follows the show business career of a department store cosmetologist, would-be comedienne and single mother and the father who abandoned the children. Few films so realistically and gently portray the tensions in the lives of very good mothers and really good children as they struggle to balance the needs of school, family and career, and not always succeeding. It is easy to identify with these characters and to root for their success.