Monday, November 30, 2020 - Unhook the Stars (1996).

It’s impossible to watch Unhook the Stars (1996) for the first time through without thinking something tragic is just about to happen. The first half hour of the film features drinking, domestic violence, child endangerment, as well as an eerily strained relationships between a mother and her daughter.

The mother in question is Mildred (Gena Rowlands), a widow who lives pretty much alone in a towering and expansive house. When we first meet Mildred, her daughter, Ann Mary Margaret (Moira Kelly), is refusing to thank her for covering her morning paper route. (Yes, a paper route). Mildred stresses that she wants her daughter to take more responsibility for her life; and Ann Mary, in response, expresses that she just wants the hell out from under her mother’s house ––– so she leaves.

The aforementioned domestic violence takes place between Mildred’s neighbors, Monica (Marissa Tomei) and Frankie (David Thornton), and is happened upon by Mildred within the film’s first few beats. While Monica tries to figure out what to do with her relationship with Frankie, she entrusts Mildred with the care of their son, JJ (Jake Loyd - most famous for his portrayal of young Anakin Skywalker in Star Wars: Episode 1(1999)). Having watched her daughter leave, Mildred is happy to begin looking after JJ. And the two, on balance, take a liking to each other.

During the first hour of this film, on account of its crawling pace, I nearly turned it off. Even more so, I couldn’t quite feel, believe, or detect any chemistry between Mildred and JJ -–––– the difference in their ages, of course, makes this a long stretch as well as a big ask. Then something happened.

Monica and Frankie work things out. JJ’s and Mildred’s time together winds itself to its natural close, and Mildred is confronted with the realities of her life. Before finding her footing once more, without anyone left to look after, she takes to sitting alone at bars and ordering back-to-back vodka martinis. It’s not that I was ever rooting against her, but Mildred, along with the film, grows just the right amount of backbone once she stops trying to solve everyone else’s problems, and starts considering her own.

Cyndi Lauper’s “Unhook the Stars” theme is an added bonus: “With time on my hands, I can make a new start.”