This film goes into the category of "Chick-Flick" but there are some "Chick-Flicks" that are very well made. Unfortunately, this is not one of those. Story starts out with 4 girls in the woods about 50 years ago who invent a club just for them called..Oh, you know. Well, forward ahead to modern day and we see Sidda Walker (Sandra Bullock) who is a successful playwright and she gives an interview to Time magazine and says her childhood was difficult. The article comes out and Sidda's mother Vivi (Ellen Burstyn) reads it and is furious and writes her out of her will and tears up her photo's and acts very melodramatic. The rest of the "Ya-Ya's" are Teensy (Fionnula Flanagan), Necie (Shirley Knight) and Caro (Maggie Smith) and they travel to where Sidda lives and spike her drink and somehow get her back to Louisiana but don't tell Vivi that they have her. Well, she finds out from Sidda's fiance' Conner (Angus Macfadyen) that they have her but she is not allowed to see her. While at their place Sidda looks at their old scrapbook and then the film uses flashbacks to view several events including why Vivi was a difficult mother and her bout with depression and being hooked on pills. This film is the directorial debut of writer Callie Khouri who wrote the screenplay for "Thelma and Louise" and she displays tremendous patience in her storytelling and the film goes on way to long. The characters all play Southern Belles and there are times during the film that it is difficult to understand exactly what they are saying. Smith is an English actress and her Southern accent is just not believable. As I watched this film I kept waiting for the big scene that is suppose to tell us about Vivi but it never really comes because we already know in advance about her troubles and yet the film is still a solid two hours long. James Garner plays Shep and the actor that plays him as a young man appears to be a good foot taller then he is. I didn't hate this film because with a great cast like this it would be impossible. The most effective scenes in the film come from Ashley Judd who is suppose to be a young Vivi and although I'm not convinced of how good of an actress she is, she is good in this film. This film could have benefited from more editing and more realistic dialogue. Great cast tries hard but except from a few scattered moments this is a big disappointment. "Ya-Ya"!
