Exoticalot People are voting emotionally.

Smartorhypo Highly Overrated But Still Good

Stevecorp Don't listen to the negative reviews

Chirphymium It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

Lala Hoohoo I don't think there's a person I mention this to - even to this day who says they've heard of it or saw it back in I show it to them.One of the things I do wonder is - how many small businesses for sale are inspired to do the raffle thing - because I think it's a great idea.I love the characters' depth. This is not a sequel or franchise that has dozens of offshoots that have time to develop and enhance the characters, it's a one night stand and they make sure you get to know what they about...or at least what they appear to be until closer to the end.The setting is lovely. I've never been to New England but everyone who has been there and those who grew up in small down New England vouches that this is about 'their town'. I love Percy's "fish out of water" beginning and then expertise after she gets into the swing of it, as well as the wisdom she brings to small minds.I promise when people watch it that they won't be disappointed.

someofusarebrave This is the kind of totally misogynistic movie that does such an excellent job of masquerading as a movie about female empowerment that it fools all but the most discerning types.There would be nothing wrong with that, except that it lulls us all into a false state of comfort. Police will always be kind, gentle folk, escaped convicts will always be 'really good' at heart, and a woman can be rescued from the worst types of spiritual and emotional pain by the 'power of the penis'. If only, right?Wrong. The world is not like that. In this world we all live in, police rape young homeless woman wandering around on their own as often as they help them out. Women who have been convicted of felonies rarely get second chances, regardless of how generous or good-hearted they happen to be. People are shaped by their circumstances and rarely manage to "rise above" them, instead dragging everyone else down with them often as not. There are no second chances.Nor should there be. Women who murder ought not to be let off the hook from the ramifications of their actions for "good behavior." Policemen ought not do the job of the non-government organizations and social programs which do not exist in the South for all intents and purposes.We ought not be able to work or charm our way out of being who we are.Everyone deserves the opportunity to start again, but part of that process MUST involve some acknowledgment of why things went so badly wrong in the first place. Teaching young girls that all they have to do to improve their lives is to trust the people around them unconditionally to help them out of any scrape they get into is morally bankrupt. Movies like this one do a terrible job of preparing young girls for the world they will actually be entering upon adulthood.It does a terrible job of describing the world they exist in now.We need to learn how to be less sweet and giving, rather than more so.Women are taught to be caring at the cost of everything we love about our lives and ourselves. Because we are so open-hearted, we are easily taken advantage of in our naivete. We need movie heroines who encourage us to be MORE wary, more suspicious of who we place our trust in, rather than less. We need heroines willing to stand on their own two feet and to work to accomplish their own dreams, rather than to fight for the dreams of those around them without a thought for themselves.In real life, this kind of goodness is boring...it is scrappiness, it is the willingness to stand one's ground and to fight for one's right to exist at all costs, that makes a life entertaining to watch and live.Instead, what this movie does is make us resent the people around us for achieving less than the perfection that the main characters of this movie achieve. We also hate ourselves for being less than wholly sweet.No man will ever solve all a woman's problems for her. No woman can work her way into redemption by serving the people around her rather than serving herself. There is no opportunity for healing without pride.No one can work themselves out of a pit of despair without honesty.May I live to see the day when movies all represent heroines of reality, rather than of male fantasies of what a 'real woman' should be.

alohahome This is a very touching but bittersweet independent film. Slow and gentle. It concerns a young woman named Percy who wishes to reconcile her unsavory past in the small town of Giliad Maine but she is haunted by the very past that she wishes to overcome. Many people would like a chance to start over but life does not always afford then that opportunity. Nonetheless, we all still do affect others in ways that are not always seen. And therein lies the tale of redemption. A redemption that is sometimes too late in coming. Yet there is still hope in the unfairness all around us. And compassion to be found. Don't expect a Hollywood ending here. But who really wants one in this context? It's been said that Hollyweood films depict life as we would like to see it. But independent films depict life as it is. Small towns are hesitant enough about welcoming newcomers, yet Percy's arrival and her spirit is sensed as being something altogether different and the town finds itself changed forever. The inviting musical score by James Horner renders a sweet ambiance, consoling with a subdued drifty quality that lulls the soul in its wake.

moonspinner55 Pure corn. A female ex-con in a small community in Maine gets waitressing job at the local diner, enlightening everyone there with her presence. Resolutely old-fashioned hokum is replete with pseudo-meaningful platitudes and female bonding (with divergent accents). Acquired at the Sundance Film Festival for what was reported to be a princely sum, Castle Rock barely distributed this after the reviews came in (they were probably hoping for another "Fried Green Tomatoes" but got rotten tomatoes instead). Trifling nonsense tries for a prestigious look, but even this fails as the moody ambiance resembles nothing more than encroaching mold. It at least gave work to Ellen Burstyn, whose professionalism and mere presence saves this from oblivion. Otherwise, a prime candidate for Lifetime's four a.m. movie. * from ****