Meryl Streep, Leonardo DiCaprio, Diane Keaton

Scott McPherson's off-Broadway hit made a strong transition to the screen in this 1996 film by director Jerry Zaks. Diane Keaton stars as a woman who, while taking care of her vegetating father in Flo...( read more  read more... )rida, discovers that she has leukemia. Only her long-estranged sister (Meryl Streep) or the sister's children can provide a possible match for a bone-marrow transplant. But the reunion is a rocky one, marked both by Streep's guilt at having abandoned her sister to take care of their father, and by the explosive dynamic between Streep and her rebellious, pyromaniac oldest son (Leonardo DiCaprio). As grim as this all sounds, there is a strong vein of black humor running through it that has the viewer laughing at unlikely moments (particularly Keaton's visits to her distracted doctor, a surprisingly funny Robert De Niro). But rest assured: tears will flow, even as the film makes you reassess all of your own family relationships. --Marshall Fine

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59% liked it

16,940 ratings

PG-13, 98 min.

Directed by: Jerry Zaks

Release Date: December 20, 1996

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DVD Release Date: January 15, 2002

Stats: 518 reviews

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Flixster Reviews (518)


  • July 1, 2008
    Wow. I almost forgot about this movie. I rented it only because Leonardo DiCaprio was in it. I was introduced to a lot of mature issues because of him.
  • May 15, 2008
    I was pleasantly surprised and impressed with this film on a few different levels. Firstly great acting all around, the main topic of illness, was dealt with very well, plus Dicaprio's character behaviour problems were captured in a way I have never seen before and was very real...( read more)istic.
  • December 29, 2007
    Movie about two sisters who do not get along and have not seen each other in 20 years. Diane's character is ill and so Meryl's character goes to visit her with her two sons. The ill sister had been caring for their elderly dad and aunt for many years and had not lived her own lif...( read more)e. Leo's performance is brilliant as the troubled wayward son who sets fire to the house and ends up in a mental institution. Leo does seem to be good at playing mental patients.
  • November 28, 2006
    i remember this being a really good movie and as usual, Meryl Streep was amazing.
  • May 30, 2009
    An excellent movie with great performances from Keaton,Streep and DiCaprio.
  • November 22, 2009
    While it is horrible story, the acting makes this movie quite entertaining. Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert De Niro and Meryl Streep gave some great performances that nearly overshadow Diane Keaton's horrible one. It was an obvious sap story that fails to produce any empathy for the ch...( read more)aracter in trouble.
  • November 16, 2009
    I remember it being quite boring. not my cup-a-tea
  • November 3, 2009
    A good and somewhat funny family drama. Great actors. Wort seeing but could have been better actually.
  • October 6, 2009
    Thoroughly enjoyable
  • August 25, 2009
    A terminal illness movie that doesn't beat you over the head with overwrought sentimentality

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