A Day Late and a Dollar Short

"There's a whole lot of mess I have to clean up before I go." Viola (Goldberg) is the matriarch of a family that has fallen apart. Her kids all hate each other, the husband has found a new woman and no one likes her anymore. After a health scare she is given news that changes her life. On the verge of death she decides it time to fix her family before it's too late. I will start with...yes this is a Lifetime movie, I am a guy, I actually did enjoy it. That said though it was a little too sappy for me. I think, like most movies lately, when another movie that is about the same thing comes out comparisons begin. This one is very much like August Osage County in plot and theme. While this movie was good and worth seeing August was so much better. Seeing that one first may have affected how I felt about this one but August had deeper relationships and just felt like a more complete movie. It may have been because it was a made-for-TV movie but this felt really thin compared to the other one. All that said though the movie is good and if you haven't seen August then you may like this more then I did. Overall, a good movie worth seeing but once again a movie suffers from being too identical to a recent movie. I give this a B-.

Premiering on Lifetime, "A Day Late and a Dollar Short" is a new made for t.v movie based on the novel by Terry McMillan. Directed by Stephen Tolkin, the story is centered on Viola and Cecil Price, ( Whoopi Goldberg, Ving Rhames), a divorced couple with four grown children. Dysfunctional on so many levels, the story is told from Viola's point of view as she tries to help her children fix their mistakes and tend to their slew of domestic and marital woes. The film contains issues such as fidelity, illness, child abuse, molestation, etc. With such a great cast, the acting was fairly decent. However, the storyline is quite cliché with nothing new to offer. A lot could' ve been left to the imagination as far as trying to piece together the lives of the characters. The ending proved to be a special moment. The letters read to each other were touching and endearing. However, they were all based on the feelings of Viola when they should've expressed the feelings of the children instead. Overall, good but not great.

For a Lifetime movie, this is an exceptional one! It has a great cast, and not just because of the well-known actors that are in this. Even the not-well known, and the not-at-all known actors were excellent.

This movie deals with quite a few adult themes, and some that will make people want to shy away. What I loved, was that the movie didn't shy away from them. They tackled some really hard issues, and didn't try to play them down in tone at all.

I will not spoil this film for anyone other than to say that it deals with life and death. There is humor in it, and there is great sadness in it.

I highly recommend watching this. You won't regret it.

It was well made fun. Tearful at the end. Too bad this family didn't come together when the protagonist was alive, this the title.

Yes, I recommend for everyone. A good family film.

I absolutely loved this movie. I stumbled on it on Lifetime today & could not bring myself to turn the channel to anything else. The casting of each actress and actor was clearly carefully considered because it was definitely on point. Whoopi Goldberg showed that she can still bring a cast together as the main character. This isn't your typical "Lifetime fluff movie" with no strong acting & flip-floppy characters. It's also not like the majority of African American movies out today that so closed mimic Tyler Perry's creations. And although I love Tyler Perry, it was good to watch something outside of the "new norm" for these types of movies. It still has a "feel good" overall theme, primarily achieved through the ending. But, it is based on a novel written in 2001 by the phenomenal Terry McMillan. I, for one, was happy to see it come alive in a movie that flowed so closely with the book's original theme. If you choose to watch this movie (which you absolutely should), all I will say is to pay attention to each character throughout it & then stick around to watch the ending. Have you seen the 90s movie "Soulfood"? If so, that's how you will feel at this end of this one. Loved it!