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**
Dir: Mark Pellington (15, 108 mins)
Shirley MacLaine adds some gravitas to this somewhat cheesy comedy drama as Harriet Laurel, a control freak who’s prevented herself from embracing life with her acid tongue. She employs Amanda Seyfried’s obituary writer to write her obituary before she dies. Trouble is no one has a good word to say about her. So, MacLaine sets about making changes, reconnecting with a daughter (Anne Heche) that she hasn’t seen in 20 years, taking a poor inner-city child to rehabilitate (AnnJewel Lee Dixon) and becoming a radio DJ. This formulaic whimsy culminates in some touching moments as MacLaine assesses her life but what surrounds it is such cosy and obvious feel good swill that it doesn’t have any real force. This is MacLaine’s film, most of the other parts are one note including Seyfried’s unlikely surrogate daughter. Undemanding schtick lifted from dross by the still spry 82-year-old MacLaine.
Opens July 7