I have to confess that I have never seen the 1937 movie "Stella Dallas", which this movie is a remake of. However, after seeing this remake, I'm willing to accept the reports that the original movie is a lot better than this remake. There are a lot of things in this remake that while I can believe would work in a 1937 environment, seem very outdated seen today, or even back in 1990 when the movie was first released, such as the no longer shocking subject of single motherhood. But the dated story elements are just one problem with this movie. Though the movie runs 109 minutes, there are big sections of the movie where things seem very rushed and incomplete; I could not get a real feeling of the bond between mother and daughter, mother and her best male friend (played by John Goodman), or any other relationship. The movie feels like a cinematic Cliff's Note telling of what might have worked in a miniseries. The movie is well acted, I guess, but great performances never manage to hide story and character flaws in a screenplay.
