Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood

Plot synopsis:
The film opens in 1937 Louisiana with four little girls out in the woods at night, each wearing a home-made headdress. The leader, Viviane Abbott (Caitlin Wachs), initiates them into a secret order she dubs the "Ya-Ya Sisterhood," which they seal by cutting their palms and taking a blood oath of undying loyalty.
The film then moves to New York City in the 1990s, where Viviane's eldest daughter, playwright Siddalee Walker (Sandra Bullock), while overseeing production of her newest release, gives an interview with a reporter from Time, mentioning her unhappy childhood as a major source of inspiration for her work. The reporter sensationalizes Sidda's complaint, implying abuse and deep, dark family secrets.
Vivi (Ellen Burstyn) reads the article and becomes extremely upset. She calls Sidda, but instead of speaking can only bang the phone on the table while crying that she is dead to her. Sidda, equally frustrated by her mother's behavior, also bangs her phone against the counter after Vivi has hung up on her. Much to the frustration of her fiancé, Connor McGill (Angus Macfadyen), Sidda takes her mother's behavior as a declaration of all-out war. Vivi takes down all the pictures of Sidda in her house, cuts her face out of family pictures, and mails the defaced pictures to Sidda, along with a copy of her will with Sidda's name marked out. Sidda in turn sends Vivi a newly printed wedding invitation with the time and place cut out, plus torn-up tickets to her play.
When the Ya-Ya Sisters learn of Vivi's war, they decide to take matters into their own hands to resolve it. Led by Caroline Eliza "Caro" Benett (Maggie Smith), Aimee Malissa "Teensy" Whitman (Fionnula Flanagan), and Denise Rose "Necie" Kelleher (Shirley Knight) visit Sidda in New York, then drug her, kidnap her, and take her back to Louisiana. There they show her a scrapbook album her mother has kept, titled Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood, which they believe they must reveal to Sidda.
They explain to Sidda her mother's experiences, depicted in flashbacks of their childhood, then as young women and mothers, including Sidda's own childhood. Vivi's (Ashley Judd) troubles include: encountering racism as a child at Teensy's uncle and aunt's house; a bitter, jealous mother (Cherry Jones) who falsely accuses her of incest with her father, and the loss of her true love, Teensy's older brother Jack (Matthew Settle) who is killed in World War II. She settles for an unhappy marriage with Shepherd James "Shep" Walker (David Lee Smith/James Garner), a good and faithful man who loves her, despite the abuse she heaps on him because he isn't Jack.
This is all well and good to Sidda, but doesn't change her opinion of her mother as a self-centered person unable to deal with her troubles, which she has unfairly inflicted on Sidda to the point of needing psychotherapy. Meanwhile, she tells Connor not to send out the wedding invitations, which troubles him enough to come down to Louisiana to find her. The Sisters then realize that Sidda must be told Vivi's deepest, darkest secret in order to understand. They try to persuade Vivi that she must do this herself, but she doesn't have the courage to tell her daughter, so they do it for her with Sidda's father present. In the meantime, Vivi tells Connor herself. The secret is that Vivi eventually had a nervous breakdown, and brutally beat Sidda and her siblings. What the children never knew was that Vivi had taken an overdose of Dexamyl, (an amphetamine used as an antidepressant), and had to be hospitalized.
Sidda finally understands the depth of her mother's suffering, and that she didn't have to waste money on therapy trying to find out why it was her fault. She also recalls a happy memory of her mother: when Sidda missed out on an airplane ride because she was too scared but then changed her mind, Vivi borrowed money to get the pilot to give one more ride, which she took with Sidda. Vivi and Sidda reconcile, and Sidda decides that she wants to marry Connor in Louisiana. Vivi makes her daughter a Ya-Ya headdress, and the Sisters induct her into the order.

Tags: entertaining, thought-provoking, inspiring, sentimental, flashback

Review:
After all the hype and comparisons to 'Steel Magnolias', 'Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood', sadly, did not do much box office, which was a shame, as it is a more intimate, realistic vision of women and life-long friendships than the glossier 'Magnolias'.Four girl friends in Louisiana create a secret sisterhood in 1937, swearing eternal devotion to each other, and they remain best friends through all the triumphs and tragedies in their lives.
In charges the other members of the Sisterhood, kidnapping Bullock, and attempting to make things right!The film then jumps back and forth in time, with Ashley Judd playing the younger Burstyn.
She has a lot of happy adventures with her Ya-Ya sisters, but also has to deal with racism, a jealous religious zealot of a mother, an overly loving father (David Rasche, breaking free of his usual comic roles), a true love who dies in WWII, and a family with a guy she 'settles' for (played, in present day, by the wonderful James Garner).
There is also a dark secret that is the core of the mother/daughter alienation, which must be dealt with in order for the rift between Bullock and Burstyn to heal (No, I will NOT give it away!) If you do the math about the years covered, you realize the present-day story SHOULD be taking place in the seventies, at the latest, but this doesn't hurt the overall effectiveness of the picture.
As the other present-day sisters, Fionnula Flanagan, Shirley Knight, and (especially) Maggie Smith are WONDERFUL, as is Angus MacFadyen, as Bullock's sympathetic and likable fiance.While this is unabashedly a 'chick flick', something I really liked was that they DIDN'T fall back on that old chestnut of somebody dying to serve as a convenient catalyst for change and the healing process.
I hadn't even paid any attention to who was in it, so was thrilled to see one of my very favorite actresses, Ellen Burstyn.I can't really tell you what made this movie speak to me the way it did.
The flawed humanity of its characters stands alongside the transcendent miracle of friendship.Young Siddalee Walker (played with passion and humor by Sandra Bullock) has made it as a playwright in New York.
It seems likely at this point that Siddalee's mother Vivi (Ellen Burstyn) will go to her grave without ever speaking to her beloved daughter again.
As the audience readies itself for Vivi's friends to rush to her defense, one of them (Maggie Smith, of course) says dryly, "She's got her pegged all right." These women, who are about as far from perfect as the cottage in Louisiana is from New York, dare to love each other with eyes wide open.Flanagan, Knight, and Smith are delightful as Vivi's three friends, and James Garner contributes a fine performance as the quiet, forbearing husband and father.
The movie, which I saw yesterday, was exactly like the book, which I read a few months ago.
All in all, the movie was wonderfully made and didn't deviate from the book, like so many films do.
My recommendation:  SKIP IT and read the fabulous books this was supposedly based on:  Little Altars Everywhere and The Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya sisterhood..
The film's thin storyline is about one such "sister" (Burstyn/Judd) who has issues with her adult daughter (Bullock) and her sister Ya-Ya's who come to her rescue much to her dismay.
Yes, she is a romanticist from the past  understandable since she has a Ph.D. in medieval history.Because she's played the film enough times, I've had the opportunity to watch it both in its entirety and in bits and pieces.
The parts are all incredibly well played  certainly expected of mature actors like Maggie Smith, Fionnula Flanagan and Ellen Burstyn.
But here even Sandra Bullock is enticing not just in her looks but in her expression of her character.Some films you like right out of the gate.
It explores three generations of mother-daughter relationships.This would be a great movie for any child of an abusive mother.Siddalee, the Sandra Bullock character, gradually comes to understand her grandmother and mother and is thus gradually able to forgive them.It is a frustrating movie.
I found myself demanding the plot bound along with series of Hollywood contrivances, but it meanders and backtracks, tantalising then not delivering, much like real life.The unbearably aching mood of reconciliation and nostalgia gradually develops, partly due to the long suffering, ever-loving Shep Walker (James Garner in a low-profile role quite unlike the ones he normally plays), and Connor (Angus Macfadyen), Siddalee's ever-patient Irish boyfriend.Maggie Smith is in it, reason enough to watch it.The movie recreates the south in lush Technicolor over three generations, a visual feast.If you are embarrassed to cry in public, make sure to watch this alone..
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.
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.
The characters all play Southern Belles and there are times during the film that it is difficult to understand exactly what they are saying.
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.
This film is really a celebration of female relationships between; mothers and daughters, between girl friends and between wife and husband.
Ashley Judd does a great performance as an Alcohol addicted mother and Ellen Burstyn is also good as the older character, played by Ashley Judd.
God, I wanted to gouge my eyes out.Do they really believe women like this kind of so-called 'chick flick?' I'm a woman and I absolutely, totally, completely HATED it!
For the most part it's a very unpleasant story of the dysfunctional (almost to the point of hateful) relationship between Sidda (Sandra Bullock) and her mother Vivien (Ellen Burstyn.) We discover that many years ago Vivien and her three closest friends had formed a secret girls' club called the "Ya Ya Sisterhood" (sort of a whimsical pagan coven) and that the Sisterhood continues to operate into adulthood.
I can only hope the book is much better, because if it isn't, then filming it would have been an incredible waste of time.If only they had tried harder.
My husband, who loved the book so much he saved the last 50 pages for a time when nobody would be around, fell asleep 15 minutes before the movie was over..
It's your typical Sandra Bullock movie, complete with love lorned main character, attractive male who would do anything for her, and conflicting elders.
That's pretty much what this film is about, Siddalee knows that her mother is a bitch but desperately wants her to be something else, so she tries to change the past and the woman who abused her.
This is the kind of movie where you can feel the testosterone being sucked out of your body and the rational and logical thought process being sucked from your brain.A complete waste of time, no reason for any straight male to see this turkey ever, unless you have to in order to keep the woman in your life putting out.
3 out of 10, one of the worse movies I've ever seen, and I've seen some real dogs.James Garner was apparently seduced by the Dark Side for the making of this film.
After first reading The Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood I was sure this was going to be a terrific movie.
Women I know who have seen this movie liked it a little more that I did (my mom, for example).
Now I'll talk about the film itself.Ellen Burstyn stars as Vivi Walker, mother of magazine article writer Sidda Walker (Sandra Bullock).
Vivi's three friends Teensy (Fionnula Flanagan), Necie (Shirley Knight), and Caro (Maggie Smith) notice that she isn't acting like herself and when they found out what happened, they beg Sidda to come down and make peace with her mother.
Along with this story, we flash back to Sidda when she was a child and see her relationship with her mother (played in these scenes by Ashley Judd).
James Garner costars as Vivi's husband, but he's a very small part of the movie.I liked some of the acting, particularly Maggie Smith and Sandra Bullock, and the film tells a story worth telling, but some problems drag it down.
I admit that the movie is mainly about the relationship of Vivi and Sidda, but considering what happens in the flashback scenes (which I won't reveal), It would have been more plausible if we found out about the siblings now that they've grown up.
It does feature good performances from Ellen Burstyn, Sandra bullock, Maggie smith, and Ashley Judd.
Nothing in the movie (look at the way Sandra Bullock was dressed and her hair) hinted at the present time being in the 1980's.
I was disappointed with the film and feel it might have been better not to make it into a movie at all.
I thought this was her worst film period,and being such a huge sandra bullock fan that says something.I thought the plot was very annoying,and I thought she was unfunny.The actresses chossen to play the old women did not look old enough anf I thought over all the script needed better work..
Parts of the book that seemed sad and true and GOOD were ruined by silly one-liners.For me the best parts of the movie were the scenes involving Ashley Judd as young Vivi...In fact, I was pleased with most of the "old" parts of the movie.
Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood wasn't a TERRIBLE movie, but please do the story justice and read the book (and its companion, Little Altars Everywhere)..
The viewer is, instead, supposed to accept the fact that Viviane just had a daughter, and in the next scene is about 13, and not even thinking about guys with whom she would want to have a daughter.While in the commercials Divine Secrets appeared to be a comedic film, it was in reality far from it.
I liked the movie as long as you don't have high expectations of following the book.
First off the movie wasn't totally awful, there were some noteworthy performances by Ellen Burstyn and Maggie Smith but the movie just fell apart with the slow pacing and the uneven flow of emotions.the story changes gears so quickly that you do not have enough time to laugh or cry.
I disliked Sandra Bullock's acting and the way she comes off in this movie.
I found this movie to be a waste of time and money, and very disappointing considering huge actresses like Maggie Smith, Ashley Judd, and so many others.
The story had so many holes - it never addressed exactly what the Ya-Ya Sisterhood was; never told us what was in 'the book'; never really gave a good explanation why Vivi was so rotten, even after the 'recovery'; left Sidda's siblings in the flashbacks.
The casting was so bad - none of the 'actresses' could manage the southern accents; the age difference between Vivi and Sidda was extremely noticeable; and why spend the money on the men in the movie when they could have just hired manequins to play the parts.
Movies like Divine Secrets of the YA-YA Sisterhood often make me wonder whether or not I should support feminists or condemn them as political extremists.The only male character in this film is a weak pathetic fool who is bossed around by his arrogant and self-absorbed wife.
Wow, that's quite a step forward for women everywhere!What is so ironic is that the people who made this movie were trying so desperately to promote the idea of female independence and sisterhood, and instead ended up making both those ideas look absurd.
This film makes "Enough" look like a plausible story of "female empowerment"..
Based on Rebecca Wells book the story follows Siddalee (Sandra Bullock), a play writer/director who's interview with the New York Times misleads her mother, Vivi, (Ellen Burstyn) to think she's an ungreatful child.
With all the characters, the emotive comedic and dramatic plots, and multi-generational time periods to be captured on film, this movie is a result of a remarkable editing and directorial job to make it enjoyable, balanced, and appealing watchable.
It is a very well written and acted movie.Sandra Bullock,Ellen Burstyn,and Ashley Judd give amazing performances.
The Ya-Ya Sisterhood is definitely made up of GRITS, four in particular (Vivi, Caro, Teensy, and Necie), who have bonded their lives together through blood, chocolate, booze, boyfriends, children, and the mystical mumbo gumbo of the sisterhood that's gone before them (even though they made up Ya-Yas).The focus of this film and the books (Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood and Little Altars) is on the lives of Siddalee Walker and her mother, Vivi, who have come to a crossroads in their relationship.
Sandra Bullock has pulled out of a sort of `goofy' phase in her career (I don't believe she snort-laughed one time in this film) and her performance is equal to the caliber of her Oscar-winning/nominated costars, Ellen Burstyn, Fionnula Flanagan, Shirley Knight, and Maggie Smith.
Ellen Burstyn is great and this is the best role for Sandra Bullock in ages.
Ellen Burstyn's performance as older Vivi is outstanding, while veterans Fionulla Flanagan (a scene stealer), Maggie Smith, and Shirley Knight portray the other "mature" Ya Yas exactly as they should be.
Although I really, really loved the book and the film was quite different and left out some key moments, I did like this movie.
"Little Altars Everywhere" tells the story of the tumultuous lives of the Ya-Yas as wives and mothers, and is a difficult, at times depressing book.
Having read the book 3 times, and passed it along to friends who also loved it, I was so excited to hear it was being made into a movie.
With a cast of Ashley Judd, Ellen Burstyn, Sandra Bullock, James Garner, etc, I knew I would love it.When I read this book for the first time, I immediately read it over again.
I do wish they hadn't cut so much out, but if they used all of both books, it would be 24 hours long!I don't know what seeing the movie would be like if you haven't read the books.
I know that they just didn't want to make a long movie but they should have left some more of the scenes where they were little girls in.
Sandra Bullock also gave a GREAT performance, much better than her other films.
There's something that's nice to see, considering the best movies are the most life like.Imagine Maggie Smith rolling around an Oxygen tank in designer clothes slipping people (including Sandra Bullock) Mickey Finns and making it look realistic (funny, I know people who would do something like that).
Captivating.If you have an unusual family (and let's face it, who out of us doesn't?), you are sure to see yourself somewhere in this film.I wholeheartedly recommend this movie to anyone who likes to get what you pay for.
It was easy to believe they were father and daughter.Ellen Burstyn as Sidilee's (Sandra Bullock) mother was a study in elegant, insane alcoholism with Ashley Judd playing her younger self.
You know, it's movies like this that make it obvious why Sandra Bullock isn't exactly anybody's favorite actress.
The way the older women kept talking to each other about their young lives reminded me way too much of the Golden Girls, which isn't a good thing (since only old people and females like that show).Bullock's overacting was irritating, as usual.
Bullock in a moment of candor says that her growing up in Louisiana was not the happiest childhood she could have had.Of course all the members of the Sisterhood read it and/or hear it and the other three think that it's time that Sandra gets told a few facts about mother and both their childhoods that she didn't know.
Ashley Judd's performance as Burstyn's character in young adulthood is also first rate.The great thing about the Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood is that not all of us, not most of us even get to live in ideal Donna Reed or June Cleaver like homes.
I haven't had a chance to read the book yet, but through the whole movie makes you feel that huge chunks of story are missing.
Even though it was filmed where I'm at, the movie lives up to its name.
Sandra BullockEllen Burstyn, Fionnula Flanagan,James Garner Cherry Jones Ashley Judd Shirley Knight Angus MacFadyen Maggie Smith and the rest of the cast are terrific.
I had a great time watching this movie.
If you liked Fried Green Tomatoes or Steel Magnolias, then The Divine Secrets of the Ya-ya Sisterhood is the movie for you!
The two main reasons to watch this film are the performance by Ellen Burstyn and Sandra Bullock.
I normally don't like Ashley Judd or Sandra Bullock but enjoyed both of them in this film.
this was a very good movie not just some chick flick it had good acting i always like james garnner and ashley judd.
my wife had been wanting to see this but did'nt think i would care for it i told her to get it and we would watch it i am glad we did this movie was funny and sad at times.