The Lemon Sisters movie storyline. A movie starring Three Women (Diane Keaton, Carol Kane and Kathryn Grody) and directed by another (Smooth Talk’s Joyce Chopra) is so rare in macho-or-die Hollywood that The Lemon Sisters deserves credit just for being made. But the credit stops there. Why would these proven talents saddle themselves with a lame comedy script, attributed to Jeremy Pisker, that views women as insufferably whimsical airheads?
The Lemon Sisters is a 1990 American comedy-drama film from Miramax Films directed by Joyce Chopra and written by Jeremy Pikser. The film was both a commercial and critical failure after being shelved for more than a year with extensive revisions.
Film Review foor The Lemon Sisters
Between the time ”The Lemon Sisters” was scheduled to open, a year ago, and its actual opening yesterday, a story surfaced that this much worked-over film would be renamed so no one would make cheap remarks like, ”It’s a lemon.” Relax; you won’t hear any bad lemon jokes here. Just imagine Diane Keaton at her most hysterical, as an asthmatic cat lover who returns from a stay in the hospital to find that her two best friends have thrown her a cat-free welcome-home party. ”Those cats need me!” she yells. ”Those cats love me!” You can make up your own lemon jokes.
In addition to inviting bad puns, ”The Lemon Sisters” also inspires dazed disbelief that professional film makers could have made such an amateurish movie. This story of three lifelong friends begins with black-and-white scenes of the girls in Atlantic City, their hometown, in 1959.
One lemon alone on a slot machine is nothing, Nola’s mother has told her, ”but three is a jackpot.” Nola says this in a long voiceover that explains the plot – always a sign of desperation. When these three little lemons suddenly reappear in 1982, Eloise has turned into Ms. Keaton and has inherited her father’s small museum of television memorabilia. Nola (Kathryn Grody) is now a wife and mother struggling to keep her family’s salt-water taffy business going. And Franki, played by Carol Kane, is determined to be a singer despite a conspicuous lack of talent. At least the film means to show that Franki is talentless, the only embarrassment it intends.
Otherwise, ”The Lemon Sisters” assumes things it ought to prove, like: why are these women still friends, except for old loyalty and shared vapidity? Yet the film constantly reminds us of the most obvious facts. In case you didn’t know that Atlantic City has many casinos, there is a helpful long montage of casino signs.
There are two good scenes in ”The Lemon Sisters.” In one, the friends sing ”Stop in the Name of Love,” complete with stop-sign hand gestures; here is the mocking humor the film desperately needs. In the other, Ms. Kane explains that she was named after Frank Sinatra. Remarkably, she manages to make her character appealing. It must have been a lonely job.
Among many candidates for the worst scene are the cat outburst and just about any of Ms. Keaton’s reaction shots. She furrows her brow too fiercely, looks too bewildered, tilts her head and once swipes her finger under her nose. Among the other wasted talents is the director, Joyce Chopra, who once made the exquisite, troubling little film ”Smooth Talk” and seems to have lost her judgment here.
The Lemon Sisters (1990)
Directed by: Joyce Chopra
Starring: Diane Keaton, Carol Kane, Kathryn Grody, Elliott Gould, Rubén Blades, Aidan Quinn, Estelle Parsons, Richard Libertini, Ashley Peldon, Francine Fargo
Screenplay by: Joyce Chopra
Production Design by: Patrizia von Brandenstein
Cinematography by: Bobby Byrne
Film Editing by: Michael R. Miller, Joe Weintraub
Costume Design by: Susan Becker
Set Decoration by: Elaine O’Donnell
Art Direction by: Tim Galvin
Music by: Dick Hyman, Howard Shore
Distributed by: Miramax Films
Release Date: August 31, 1990
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