Dotsthavesp I wanted to but couldn't!

Beystiman It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

Glucedee It's hard to see any effort in the film. There's no comedy to speak of, no real drama and, worst of all.

Casey Duggan It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

jdhb-768-61234 'Mermaids' is a great reminder that films don't have to be full of cgi, blood and guts, nudity or any of the other 'attractions' that so often feature. Instead, it's a gently humorous story that combines the pains of growing up with older romance, all of which is handled tastefully and with much skill by the cast and director.Cher is, as always, magnificent, endowing her character of 'Mrs Flax' with sensitivity and vulnerability as well as with occasional cruelty and sheer bloody-mindedness. Winona Ryder makes a perfectly lovely Jewish girl who longs to be a nun and Christina Ricci bounces, and swims, around with great aplomb for one then so young. Aided by Bob Hoskins as Mrs Flax's rather unlikely romantic interest, the whole blends together rather well.It's not all plain sailing and there are dramatic moments, not least when Kate (Christina Ricci) ends up in hospital, her life hanging in the balance, but also the spats between Mrs Flax and Charlotte (Winona Ryder) and Mrs Flax and Lou (Bob Hoskins) but you always feel that all will end well.There are some great one-liners in the script and the musical accompaniment is exactly right. Altogether a film that won't disappoint those who like good, honest entertainment and a worthy 8/10.

tieman64 Directed by Richard Benjamin, "Mermaids" stars Winona Ryder as Charlotte Flax, a 15-year-old girl who lives with Rachel (Cher), her eccentric mother.Set in the 1960s, "Mermaids" watches as Charlotte struggles to cope with her mother's inability to settle down. Rachel's "promiscuity" irks her daughter even further. In response Charlotte develops an infatuation with Catholicism, nuns and convents; she hopes to evade her mother's supposedly "sinful" life by becoming its pious opposite. By the film's end, both mother and daughter have learnt to accept each other, Rachel settling with a kindly man (Bob Hoskins), and Charlotte learning that happiness can exist outside conventionally "perfect" nuclear families."Terms of Endearment" (1983) spawned a decade of imitative Hollywood comedy-dramas. "Mermaids" is one of the last. It's elevated by Cher and Ryder's movie-star charisma, the former with her concrete cheeks and diva sassiness, the latter with her pixie hair and adorable wisecracks. Elsewhere director Richard Benjamin carefully juggles schmaltz, truths and comedy, all held together by beautiful Massachusetts scenery. The film's title alludes to both Charlotte's sister (Christina Ricci), a swimming prodigy, and the film's three central characters, all transient, itinerant women who refuse to drown in the face of life's little tsunamis. 7.9/10 - See "Anywhere But Here" and "Wendy and Lucy".

Real_Girl Cher and Wynona Ryder are very believable as Mrs. and Charlotte Flax, respectively. Mrs. Flax is a single mom who lives by the motto "Real women never get too old." Her bright, bold, sexy ways make her a special woman but aren't enough to spare her from all the characteristic pains of single motherhood. Moving from town to town with every new relationship, she finds herself at odds her 15 year old daughter, Charlotte.Charlotte wants to be everything her mother isn't - pious, proper, humble, and pure. Her good intentions, however, are constantly in conflict with her basic nature, which is more like her mothers. Charlotte develops a fierce crush on Joe, the caretaker at a nearby convent. When Mrs. Flax's potentially serious relationship with the endearing Lou, played by Bob Hoskins, hits a rough patch, she too finds herself attracted to Joe. With competition for his affection to add fuel to the fire between Mrs. Flax and Charlotte, the only thing they can seem to agree on is caring for Katie, Charlotte's little sister, charmingly played by a young Christina Ricci. As things come to a head in the small town where the Flaxes are living, Katie's well-being hangs in the balance while both her mom and older sister try to work through their impulses.

gcd70 "Mermaids", from director Richard Benjamin, is quite a funny movie, and it needs to be. The comedy is definitely the only thing that really holds it up.Set in the early sixties, the material from novelist Patty Dann sadly has little substance for the big screen. Yet the cast do well with the script from screenwriter June Roberts, and all of them manage to entertain us.Cher and Winona Ryder are good, but Bob Hoskins really wins you with his smile and his uncanny ability to make you laugh. Also starred Christina Ricci. Not bad at all.Friday, May 17, 1991 - Knox District Centre