Coming Up Roses

Independently-produced drama starring Bernadette Peters as the unstable, unemployable mother of a teenage daughter; she's a former stage actress reduced to living in a rundown building, still hoping the ex-husband who walked out on her six years ago will return. Peter Friedman is the city worker who takes a liking to both ladies; he's set up as the proverbial prince with a sad heart, but there's a twist to his character that only serves to make us really uncomfortable. Rachel Brosnahan is fine as 15-year-old Alice, although she looks and talks like a much older girl; her friendship with a neighborhood troublemaker and her job as a drug-runner are both narrative dead-ends. As for Peters, she's professional and adept, as always; she elevates this shopworn material, updated with rougher language and constant police sirens. Screenwriters Lisa Albright (who also directed) and Christina Lazaridi have seen a lot of movies; they know the drill, yet they haven't developed this material enough to make it embraceable. Most audiences would cross the street to avoid these people. * from ****

Cherie is getting married and hoping to escape from her unstable mother and former stage star Diane (Bernadette Peters). No such luck. Diane and her other daughter Alice (Rachel Brosnahan) have moved into the neighborhood. They don't have money for rent and property manager Charles Aiello (Peter Friedman) is sniffing around. Neighbor Cat (Reyna de Courcy) offers Alice some work.

Rachel Brosnahan is starting out in her career. The actors are generally great but this tries to do too many things. There is the mother daughter relationship. There is Alice and Cat. All the relationships are given short shrift. Filmmaker Lisa Albright's inexperience shows. The film is like a bunch of pretty costumes but non of them really fits. I also don't like the turn in Charles mostly due to a lack of setup. There are a lot of stuff in this movie that isn't setup well or resolved satisfactorily. This has potential and good acting but it struggles to pull everything together.

This film is about a struggling family where the centrer character is a naive teenage girl.

The story of the movie had potential but the cast failed to perform accordingly to capture the audience. The screenplay was not good and the cinematography was quite disappointing. For some reason the sound editing was exhaustive for the ears.

It could have been an enjoyable film only if it played all the cards right.

Not recommended for quality time but can be tried to fill up boring time.