Mermaids

Plot synopsis:
The film is narrated by Charlotte Flax, a quirky and awkward 15-year old girl living in Oklahoma with her single, eccentric mother, Rachel (whom she calls "Mrs. Flax"), and her sweet nine-year-old sister, Kate. Rachel's daughters have different fathers—Charlotte is a product of a teenage romance and Kate is from an affair with an athlete.
The narration begins in early fall of 1963. Just as Rachel's latest fling with her married employer ends, she decides to relocate with Charlotte and Kate once again. This time, they move to a new home near a convent in the small town of Eastport in Massachusetts. Charlotte has an unusual obsession with Catholicism and is always reminded by Rachel that they are Jewish. She idolizes the nuns living in the convent, wanting to become one herself. Kate, on the other hand, loves oceans and swimming. She apparently learned to do so when she was a baby, giving her Olympic potential and allowing her to win many competitions.
In Eastport, Charlotte becomes especially interested in Joe Poretti, the 26-year-old handsome caretaker of the convent and local school bus driver, while Rachel falls in love with a local shop owner named Lou Landsky. After the assassination of John F. Kennedy, Charlotte believes she is comforting Joe in mourning, and they end up kissing in the bell tower where he rings the church bell. After the encounter, she begins fasting in order to purge her sinful thoughts, but eventually passes out from hunger and starts eating again.
Soon fearing that God may be punishing her by making her pregnant through immaculate conception and unable to talk to her mother about it, she steals Rachel's car and runs away. She stops at the house of a "perfect nuclear family" in New Haven, Connecticut, asking to spend the night, telling them her name is Sal Val and other wild stories, which they don't seem to completely believe. Later on, she is picked up by Lou and taken home, where Charlotte immediately receives a harsh scolding from Rachel.
When Rachel calms down after drinking some Scotch liquor, she tells Charlotte that she was worried sick about her safety, and, thinking that it's her fault that Charlotte ran away from home, admits that even though she's not an expert in parenting, she's willing to compromise and try her best to take care of both Charlotte and Kate. The next day, Charlotte makes an appointment at the nearest hospital under the name Joan Arc, where she goes to see an obstetrician and is told she is still a virgin. Relieved, she goes home, dispelled of her assumption that "one kiss can get you pregnant".
At a New Year's Eve costume party, Lou asks Rachel to move in with him but she declines, reminding him that they're both still married to different spouses. However, she's not willing to break up with him nor let their relationship progress either. They have a big fight which ends with Lou calmly leaving in disappointment. Rachel then asks Joe for a ride home, before she wishes him a happy New Year and kisses him. Charlotte sees this and feels that her mother is trying to steal him away.
The night after the incident, Charlotte dresses up in Rachel's clothes and makeup, and she and Kate get drunk on wine. Hearing the church bells ringing, she then takes Kate to the convent to see Joe. Kate decides to stay behind and collect rocks while Charlotte goes up to the bell tower to find Joe and they have sex. Unbeknownst to them, Kate falls into a river and almost drowns, but is saved by the nuns and is taken to the hospital.
Very angry at the turn of events, Rachel has a big altercation with Charlotte, as she is wanting to move again to avoid embarrassment since the whole town is talking about Charlotte and Joe. Eventually, the two have a heart-to-heart conversation and Charlotte convinces Rachel to stay in Eastport for at least another year.
Time passes in the small town and Rachel's relationship with Lou progresses. Joe moves to California and opens up a plant nursery, but keeps in touch with Charlotte via postcards. Charlotte, in turn, gains a reputation in high school due to her sexual encounter with Joe and replaces her Catholicism obsession with Greek mythology, with Rachel now reminding her that they are not Greek. Kate recovered and is swimming again, although the accident left her hearing sometimes "sounding fuzzy". The film ends with all three of them dancing while setting the table for dinner.

Tags: dramatic, comedy, romantic

Review:
It also has a real feel for the 60's.Downsides are one cliche too many (WHY does every movie that takes place in the 60's have to feature JFK's assassination?) and it goes on a tad too long, but its worth watching for sure..
Cher, Ryder and an adorably young Christina Ricci are perfect as a single parent family.
Ryder, who narrates the film from her character's perspective, is a high school student who, despite her fervent wish to lead a devout life, falls in love with the local handyman.
It's unforgettable.) Bob Hoskins is hilarious as the shoe salesman who falls head over heels for Cher, family and all.Set in coastal Massachusetts, the scenery is breathtaking, and the idyllic depiction of life in a small town in the last days of American innocence is dead on.
Cher also had the original director of this film, and the girl who was originally cast in Winona's part fired.
As Rachel Flax, a headstrong and independent mother of two (Winona Ryder, Christina Ricci), she thinks nothing of jumping into her car at the slightest sign of trouble and moving to another town ("Life is change", she says).
Ryder is excellent as the fifteen year-old Charlotte, a girl who thinks that the best way to fight her burgeoning hormones is to devote her life to the Catholic church as a nun, despite the fact that she's Jewish.
The period details are fun, Cher is GREAT, and the chemistry between Hoskins, Cher, Winona Ryder and Christina Ricci is excellent.
(Charlotte watches the Singing Nun on television, while Antoine lights a candle before a holy image of Balzac.)Cher is as good as she was earlier in "Moonstruck", while Winona exceeds her performance in "Welcome Home, Roxy Carmichael".
The movie is from the daughter's point of view and Ryder does an excellent job playing the purtian to Cher's mother role.
When Mrs. Flax's potentially serious relationship with the endearing Lou, played by Bob Hoskins, hits a rough patch, she too finds herself attracted to Joe. With competition for his affection to add fuel to the fire between Mrs. Flax and Charlotte, the only thing they can seem to agree on is caring for Katie, Charlotte's little sister, charmingly played by a young Christina Ricci.
Seeing this movie first at age 14/15, I could heavily relate to the character portrayed by Winona, who by the way played the role brilliantly.
Cher, someone I never until watching the film, thought as a serious actress, blew me away by her role in mermaids, her fluky mom persona is addictive and humerus.
The combination of Cher, Winona and Christina Ricci make the perfect family for this film.
Ryder is tested by a young man that she starts to have feelings for while Cher has difficulty adjusting to a serious relationship with Bob Hoskins.
A single mother, Mrs Flax (played by Cher), relocates to a small town with her two daughters, Charlotte (Winona Ryder) and Kate (Christina Ricci).
My favorite quote that I use in life even today is " You drive like old people make love" - this is what Cher says to Wynona Ryder as she is driving.
Good drama comedy film that entertains well enough particularly for the fans of this genre.The main characters tend to be exaggerated versions of reality but still comes off real enough to deliver the basic idea of the story.Great cast and performances by the lead actors.The story was good but nothing grand.Set production was very good and attention to detail was awesome as well in order to effectively illustrate 1963-64.Only for big fans of the lead actors here and fans of family drama comedy movies.......
Directed by Richard Benjamin, "Mermaids" stars Winona Ryder as Charlotte Flax, a 15-year-old girl who lives with Rachel (Cher), her eccentric mother.Set in the 1960s, "Mermaids" watches as Charlotte struggles to cope with her mother's inability to settle down.
By the film's end, both mother and daughter have learnt to accept each other, Rachel settling with a kindly man (Bob Hoskins), and Charlotte learning that happiness can exist outside conventionally "perfect" nuclear families."Terms of Endearment" (1983) spawned a decade of imitative Hollywood comedy-dramas.
Meanwhile Mrs. Flax is courted by shoe store owner Lou Landsky (Bob Hoskins).It is a fine coming-of-age movie that concentrates heavily on the interior monologue of Charlotte.
Watching Winona Ryder portraying a character on screen can make you think she's a little crazy.
I want to add; maybe we should have expected what happened with her in real life, but you've got to give me that she was 19 and at the acting level of Oscar winner Cher.It's the most thrilling experience to watch Winona in any role at any time, because as I've said, her performances are always screaming "Oscar" to me.
Subtly, Ryder expresses Charlotte's every minute feeling with a rough and soft voice that transmits: "I'm going to make a real sandwich", she says while she waits Joe (Michael Schoeffling) to pick her up.The film's main character Rachel Flax (Cher), Charlotte's mother, is one of those unique women that actually exist in real life.
One of those women who have two daughters from different men and that carry her last name because both of the fathers are men she never saw again; one of those women who takes her daughters and luggage to everywhere and never stays in the same place for more than a year.As selfish as Rachel is (without knowing it), with a teenage daughter and a little daughter (Christina Ricci, probably the cutest thing in the film), she can't really handle it, we sense; because Charlotte won't talk to her and Kate (the Ricci character) isn't much around.
The title of the film means a lot inside the characters (you'll see), but it's represented in it when Kate wants an ocean in her bedroom (which Lou creates), because she swims.She says she would like to live in an ocean, like the mermaids, you know?
Its the movie that will let you know that no one is alone, from the little girls who crave the lime light, to the Mothers who want to be the best mother they can but also don't want to leave a part of their past behind and also for the confused young women torn between two loves.
Mermaids was made in 1990, starring of course the wonderful Cher, Bob Hoskins and Winoya Ryder.
The problems begin with an embarrassing script, loading every conceivable coming-of-age cliché on a set of characters overburdened with contrived eccentricities: Winona Ryder is a Jewish teen obsessed with Catholicism; younger sister Christina Ricci wants to swim the English Channel; and Cher iswell, simply Cher.
Bob Hoskins is the only actor who can fully develop a character in the film -- but admittedly -- Ryder is a joy to watch.
Yet the cast do well with the script from screenwriter June Roberts, and all of them manage to entertain us.Cher and Winona Ryder are good, but Bob Hoskins really wins you with his smile and his uncanny ability to make you laugh.
Winona Ryder has proved before and since this film that she can act, but her performance here isn't one of her best.
Aside from the two leads, the film also stars Christina Ricci, who despite being very young, impresses in her role and Bob Hoskins; who was the standout for me.
Everything in this movie has been done to a better effect somewhere else, but the film should be enjoyed for what it is; a quirky, and at times funny, coming of age tale.
The surprise is the supporting cast: a very young Christine Ricci, wild Cher, horny Bob Hoskins, all make a wonderful compliment to Winona's portrayal of a young woman in the early American sixties.The movie title is deceptive.
It is Cher who dresses up as a mermaid, yet the characters of Winona and Christine who may be the "mermaids." The story, despite this, is a clearly directed and wholly engaging thought-provoker, and well worth your time in watching it..
Cher delivers one of the best performances of her career as the off-the-wall Rachel Flax, an independent, way-ahead-of-her-time, aging party girl who sometimes puts her own good time ahead of the welfare of her daughters.
Winona Ryder is appealing as Rachel's elder daughter, Charlotte, who is so embarrassed by her mother that she refers to her in her off-screen narration as "Mrs. Flax" and Christina Ricci already begins to show the gifted actress she would turn into as Charlotte's little sister Katie.
Director Richard Benjamin really hits a bullseye here...recreating a turbulent period in history by contrasting it with a central character who seems to be oblivious of all that is going on except for in her own little world and backing the whole story with some wonderful music from the 1960's and Cher's cover of "The Shoop Shoop Song" during the closing credits is the bomb.
Although it came unnoticed at the moment of its theatrical release, "Mermaids" has proved itself as a great rent for a rainy evening.The story involves the lives and loves of Ms. Flax and her daughter Charlotte, played convincingly by Cher and Winona Ryder.
The quirky personalities of mother and daughter make the movie very funny and cute, and so does a young Christina Ricci's performance.
There's even Christina Ricci in a rare 'cute' role!The period setting provides an excuse for a great 'golden-oldie' soundtrack as well, capped off at the end by Cher's own charming cover version of "The Shoop-Shoop Song".
you have Cher being the undisputed Sass Queen who can't seem to stay in one place for long, and a young Christina Ricci as her irrepressible cute-as-a-button youngest daughter who's also a natural swimming prodigy.But then you have the other daughter Winona Ryder in a very bi-polar role (before the term was even coined) as a troubled teen.
She has the hots for a local hunk in his mid-twenties, and let's just say her constant mood swings and pretentious narration wear on the nerves after a while.Bob Hoskins is also on hand to lend affable support as the man who might actually at last convince Cher to settle down, however as nice as he is here, his performance doesn't leave much of an impression.So basically, what we're left with in the end is the occasional hilarious one-liner from our leading lady, a few dramatic spots where you can probably guess the outcome, a somewhat dubious relationship between a grown man and a teenage girl (but as the movie set in the 60's, they think it's passable I suppose) and that great soundtrack I mentioned before.I know what my main takeover will be out of those.
Cher's return to the big screen following her Best Actress Oscar for "Moonstruck" is the perfect choice for the multi-talented grand dame of pop: Her central role is tailor-made for her charm, talent and screen presence, and she shares warm chemistry with supporting players Bob Hoskins, Winona Ryder and a young Christina Ricci (in her film debut).
The sparks between Cher and Ryder are particularly striking as the two distinctive performers bring out the best in each other as a dueling mother and daughter set, while Hoskins brings his considerable amiability to his turn as Cher's love interest.
I'm conquering another Cher's film, perhaps her lesser-known one, MERMAIDS sets up in the 1960s with an unorthodox pair of a middle-age single mother and her adolescent daughter, both try to manage their lives in their own ways (dealing with the conundrum with men is a befuddling task for both), also attenuates the accruing conflicts between them.
The story goes smoothly with an occasionally witty, but otherwise run-of-the-mill narrative (the highlight for me is the "ocean in the room time" which effectually casts a genuine uplift upon me), Cher seems to steer onto a more restrained way of acting to manifest her "modern new woman" pioneer archetype, unwed mother with 2 children, casually flirting with men, sleeping with men and taking on a not-so-serious relationship with Bob Hoskins (a deliberate set with a jarring comparison).
Cher, Winona Ryder, Bob Hoskins, and young Christina Ricci make up a cute and fun cast for this movie.
This movie is about Mrs. Flax (Cher), a mother of two who makes tv dinners every night while raising her religious daughter (Winona Ryder) and swimming young girl (Christina Ricci).
Her eldest daughter (played by Winona Ryder) Charlotte, a teenager who is not exactly the world's best Jew- she's a Catholic in her own spirit who wants to become a nun.
But things change in this new town they have moved to- Mrs. Flax (Cher) allows her self to fall in love with Lou (Bob Hoskins).
Charlotte (Winona Ryder) and Kate (Christina Ricci), who are about 15- and 8-years old respectively, are her daughters.
This is a nice (but increasingly familiar) switch on the mother who is embarrassed by her daughter's precocious sexuality, and Cher and Ryder play their parts well.The story, from a novel by Patty Dann, begins with the trio moving into yet another town, this time somewhere in New England.
Little Ricci really is the mermaid since she likes to practice holding her breath under water.Part of the strength of the film is in the dialogue and the sharp repartee between Ryder and Cher.
Cher, Bob Hopkins, Wionna Ryder, and Christina Ricci all provide wonderful chemistry on screen.
"Mermaid's" is a really cheery comedy about young Charlotte Flax (Winona Ryder), who was growing up and her interested change every now and then, which is normal for most teenage girls.
I watched this movie for the first time about 10 years ago when i was really young and liked it then.So if you want to watch a funny film with a good soundtrack then this is the movie you want to watch..
Very good acting of Cher, Winona Ryder,Bob Hoskins and the rest of the cast..
Mermaids is a strange comedy starring Cher, Bob Hoskins, the brilliant Winona Ryder and a really young, sweet Christina Ricci.
Of course I think Cher is beautiful, and is such a talent in this coming-of-age movie.
The coming-of-age"ness" is done partly by Cher's character Rachel, and partly by Ryder's char, Charlotte.
"Mermaids" tells the story of an upbeat mother named Rachel Flax (Cher) who after every failed relationship she moves to another state along with her two daughters Charlotte and Kate (Winona Ryder and Christina Ricci)and finally settles down in a small town in Massachusetts and finds herself in a relationship with a shoe-salesman named Lou Landsky (Bob Hoskins).
The acting is amazing with actresses Cher (Silkwood and The Mask), Winona Ryder (Beetlejuice and Edward Scissorhands), and Christina Ricci (The Addam's Family Weird is Relative and Casper).
Mermaids is directed by Richard Benjamin, has a screenplay by June Roberts, is based on the novel by Patty Dann and stars Cher, Bob Hoskins, Winona Ryder and Christina Ricci.Charlotte Flax(Winona Ryder)and her younger sister Kate(Christina Ricci)have to learn to cope with their mum moving them all over the country whenever things don't go right for her in her failed relationships.Their mum(Cher)is a glamorous woman who can be a bit shocking at times.She adores Kate but doesn't know what to do with Charlotte who's just trying to find her place in the world.They family move to a small town near to a convent(at which Charlotte is thrilled) and she ends up falling in love with the gorgeous caretaker there Joe(Michael Schoeffling).Mrs Flax finds romance of her own with kind shoe salesman Lou Landsky(Bob Hoskins)who is the one man to reach her heart and he may just be the man for her.Funny and moving Mermaids will have you laughing and crying.
Told through the eyes of older daughter Charlotte (Winona Ryder), who is at that awkward teenage stage when, well, you know, it concerns the Flax family in 1960s middle America.
Every time anything close to permanency approaches, Mrs Flax ups sticks and she, Charlotte, and little Kate (Christina Ricci, cute as a button an an early child role) move somewhere else.
But local shoe shop proprietor Lou (Bob Hoskins) has his eye on Mrs Flax, and things are nearing the tipping point again.This film is quirky and quite charming, with terrific performances from the four principals, a lot of laughs, and a little bit of heartbreak too.
It truly is an adorable film, it has everything, and of-course some quirk, which is extremely fresh in movies.Cher is so gorgeous and warm, although her character is not, i still love her in it.
Basically, set in 1963, fifteen year old Charlotte Flax (Golden Globe nominated Winona Ryder, who also narrates throughout) lives with her glamorous but eccentric mother Rachel who she refers as "Mrs. Flax" (Cher) and her little sister Kathryn 'Kate' (introducing nine year old Christina Ricci).
Cher is good as the oddball and out there mother, Hoskins does his accent okay and is likable, Ryder is a great surprise as the opinionated and confused girl, and Ricci is so adorable and cute with her sweet nature and attitude.
The story is simple, a quirky family living the nomadic lifestyle, the love interest plots with the two women is interesting, the bickering and emotional arguments are engaging, the period of the film is convincing, and of course it is great to hear "The Shoop Shoop Song (It's in His Kiss)" (both the Betty Everett and the number one version by Cher), it is a nice gentle, funny and light-hearted romantic comedy.
Winona Ryder makes a perfectly lovely Jewish girl who longs to be a nun and Christina Ricci bounces, and swims, around with great aplomb for one then so young.
Made in 1990 but set in the early 1960s (news report of Kennedy death in 1963), Rachel Flax (Cher, 44) is an unconventional, some might say 'flaky', mom of Charlotte (Winona Ryder, 18) and Kate (Christina Ricci, 10).
Mermaids is a charming movie, moving, and funny at times.