Hello Sister, Goodbye Life

Olivia Martin (Lacey Chabert) is a normal 21 year old college girl dating her teaching assistant Joe. He's moving to Italy to study and asks her to join him. She is estranged from her father who divorced her mom Barbara (Wendie Malick), and remarried to Alicia. He and Alicia have bratty daughter Celia (Sammi Hanratty). When her father and Alicia are killed, Olivia is left as Celia's guardian. She reluctantly accepts the responsibility from her father's friend and the executor of the estate Dennis Klein (David Ramsey).

This was shown on ABC Family and has the expected production qualities. The story is very basic. It's very simple and slow at times. The writing is nothing special. The big initial draw is Lacey Chabert. Little Sammi Hanratty is a little girl with big acting and good range. They have a good melodramatic relationship. It's a family movie that isn't too sappy. It could have helped if Olivia has a wacky comedic best friend to add some jokes. Wendie Malick tries to fill that role but the mother can't be the comedic sidekick.

This is one of the best TV-movies I have ever seen. It was fantastic. Everything about it rocked. The plot line was a great idea. Both the actresses playing Olivia and Celia were excellent together, I would enjoy seeing them in another movie. The whole movie itself was sweet, and I recommend it to everyone. This movie was sweet and interesting, portraying the details of what many families have to endure. The death(s) of loved one(s) are not easy to deal with, nor are the changes in everyday life that you are required to make also. Hello Sister, Goodbye Life is a good example of what can happen as a result of a death in the family, also what can happen when two sisters really care about each other.

i Think this movie was very well done and touched many people's hearts. i Think this movie was very well done and touched many people's hearts. i Think this movie was very well done and touched many people's hearts. i Think this movie was very well done and touched many people's hearts. i Think this movie was very well done and touched many people's hearts. i Think this movie was very well done and touched many people's hearts. i Think this movie was very well done and touched many people's hearts. i Think this movie was very well done and touched many people's hearts. i Think this movie was very well done and touched many people's hearts. i Think this movie was very well done and touched many people's hearts. i Think this movie was very well done and touched many people's hearts.

The actress that played Olivia was amazing in the hit movie 'Mean Girls', but only so-so in the ABC Family Original movie, 'Hello Sister, Goodbye Life'. Celia seems like she would be a brat and Richy-rich. I also think it was gross that she was dating her professor. That's like illegal! This movie was so corny and I believe it is physically impossible for ABC family to make a GOOD movie! It was OK but it copied 'Uptown Girls' and 'Raising Helen'. How they soon bond is also very corny and I don't think of it as a movie any living human should have to sit through. It wasn't as bad as i thought though. Oh wait, yes it was.

A very good script and a briskly maintained pace of direction struggle with some handsome but unfortunately one-note performances. While I do not expect Sammi Hanratty in the role of the seven-year-old Celia to show the range and subtlety of of Shirley McLaine, Lacey Chabert as her older sister seems to spend most of the movie locked in low-key, depressed sarcasm and even old hands like Wendy Malick play their characters -- well, if not monotonously, then at least never straying far from the keyboard note they start out at.

You may argue that this is the way movies, especially TV movies are made these days. Movies are made to accommodate demographics, and the demographics for beautiful, busty young actresses like Ms. Chabert are good enough to compensate the viewer for the fact that she does not have the range that she will, one hopes, develop as she grows. For old geezers like me, there is the eye candy and a story that makes some good points and touches our hearts a little. Am I unreasonable to hope for more?