Now and Then (1995)

Directed by Lesli Linka Glatter. Starring Christina Ricci, Ashleigh Aston Moore, Gaby Hoffmann, Thora Birch, Demi Moore, Rosie O’Donnell, Rita Wilson, Melanie Griffith, Walter Sparrow, Devon Sawa, Bonnie Hunt, Lolita Davidovich, Brendan Fraser, Janeane Garofalo, Hank Azaria, Cloris Leachman. [PG-13]

Four adult women reunite for the birth of a child and reminisce over their childhood together during one of those “last great summers” that coming-of-age stories love to use (Stand by Me echoes loudest of all in this variation). The young actresses do credible work, and there are isolated moments of appealing humor and nostalgia and relevant budding-adolescence themes, but isolated moments are precisely what they are—nothing holds the memories together, and there are far too many half-sketched, semi-artificial ideas that get introduced and are quickly forgotten. Replete with uninspired needle-drops, forced pathos, and cutesy transitions, it’s a movie that prefers recycling emotions over exploring them, and the bankruptcy of the script is revealed almost right away with the opening volley of Demi Moore’s narration: “Thomas Wolfe once said…” (Nothing he said is gonna save this thing now.) As for Demi and the other grown-up versions (O’Donnell, Wilson, Griffith), they’re relegated to the prologue and epilogue only, and seem to just be there because the producers needed their combined star power to help sell the movie; Demi happened to be one of those producers, and her daughter, Rumer Willis, has a minor role as Hoffmann’s little sister. Fraser went unbilled.

44/100