Other Titles • Mermaids • Meerjungfrauen küssen besser (1990)
Synopses for Mermaids (1990)
1.
In the early '60s, nomadic single mom Mrs. Flax (Cher) packs up her two daughters, Charlotte (Winona Ryder) and Kate (Christina Ricci), in a beat-up Chevy wagon and moves to small-town Massachusetts. Preteen Kate is obsessed with swimming, while 15-year-old Charlotte is searching for ways to rebel against her mom (and mom's flirty ways). The route she chooses is to become fascinated with Catholicism and all its arcane rituals, even though the family is Jewish. Her coming of age is handled with plenty of Wonder Years-style voiceovers as she fantasizes about Christ, the saints, the Pope, the Church--all things Catholic. Cracks in her religious armor begin to appear, though, in the form of a hunky local guy (Michael Schoeffling) who works at the convent. Meanwhile, her mom strikes up a romance with the town shoe-store proprietor, Lou (Bob Hoskins). Though Richard Benjamin's movie is a bit slow and tends to lose its focus somewhat in the last third, Mermaids also has fairly credible dialogue and surprisingly believable chemistry between Cher and Hoskins. The segments dealing with JFK's assassination are handled particularly well, and while Ricci's role is a rather small one, she's charming nonetheless. It's all too easy for coming-of-age movies to veer toward the maudlin, but thankfully this engaging comedy-drama seldom does. Cher, by the way, reprises her 1966 Sonny and Cher look, substituting a tight skirt and pumps for her turtleneck and fur vest. --Jerry Renshaw
2.
MERMAIDS is the story of the turbulent relationship between a flamboyant, outrageous mom (Cher) and her two daughters (Winona Ryder and Christina Ricci) who just want a normal, stable life. Socially rebellious and provocative, the mother is reluctant to settle down, even at the request of her two daughters (one of whom, despite being Jewish, longs to enter a convent). The unusual family has moved 18 times in the last 15 years, usually whenever Mrs. Flax senses she might have to commit to a relationship. But this time the girls hope the family will stay put, and their conflicting desires lead to a final, near-tragic result.
3.
Cher is "magical [and] electric" (The Hollywood Reporter), Winona Ryder "enchanting and funny" (The New York Times) and Christina Ricci "adorable and engaging" (Variety) in this hilarious and heartwarming portrait of a 1960's single-parent family trying to adjust to each other's growing independence.
Charlotte (Ryder) is an adolescent girl torn between her blossoming passions for a handsome caretaker (Michael Schoeffling) and her desire to be a nun (a tough calling for a girl who's Jewish). Complicating her already precarious teen angst is a little sister (Ricci), a determined would-be swimmer she affectionately calls "fishhead", and their mother (Cher) , a non-traditional, sexy, flamboyant woman who relocates them to a new town every time she causes a hint of scandal -- which is often. But even as their personal styles clash, these three incredibly different individuals begins to see that nothing -- not even a life-threatening tragedy -- can tear apart the bonds of family.
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