Mermaids (1990)

Directed by Richard Benjamin. Starring Winona Ryder, Cher, Bob Hoskins, Michael Schoeffling, Christina Ricci, Jan Miner. [PG-13]

Easygoing 1960s-set seriocomedy of an eccentric family, and being easygoing about eccentricity is itself both a reward and a defect. Single mom Cher and daughters Ryder and Ricci move around a lot, and their last exodus has landed them in a small Massachusetts town where the matriarch begins seeing a shopkeeper (Hoskins) and the self-absorbed older daughter lusts for hunky caretaker Schoeffling, which goes against her compulsive interest in Catholicism. Benjamin’s slack direction does no favors for the more innocuous segments of June Roberts’ script (from a coming-of-age novel by Patty Dann), but even in the face of muddled motifs that may or may not be attempting symbolism, there are details and gentle jokes to savor. Ryder’s neurotic behavior can be so peculiar and her obsessions so extreme that she’s hard to relate to, and it hogs so much attention that it’s easy to overlook the offbeat chemistry between Hoskins and Cher—the movie would have benefited from less of the daughter’s whingeing voiceovers and more depictions of perverse domesticity. Ricci’s first film role.

58/100