All of It (1998)

User Rating:

6.4/10   

Director:

Jody Podolsky

Writer:

Jody Podolsky (writer)

Genre:

Drama | Comedy | Romance

Plot:

A hip, 25-year-old New York editor is about to return to her midwestern hometown, steeled for a visit with her larger-than-life über-mom...

Plot Keywords:

Marriage | Boyfriend | Editor | Motherhood | Nervous Breakdown

Cast

Alanna Ubach	...	Amy Holbeck
Lesley Ann Warren	...	Glenda Holbeck
James Rebhorn	...	Bill Holbeck
Nancy Banks	...	Jullian Kramer
Michael B. Silver	...	Ben Glazer
Edward Nahhat	...	Craig Kramer
Trudy Mason	...	Dee Rosen
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Jessica Sloane Abrams	...	(Older) Young Amy
Hallie Burns	...	Young Amy
Gayle Burstein	...	Lunching Lady (Sheila)
Andi Carnick	...	Wendy Jacobs-Rubin
Shannon Cole	...	Locker Room Lady
Jaye Cooper	...	Country Club Woman
Sandra Dembs	...	Lunching Lady (Dottie)
Dana Gamarra	...	Mike The Manager
Jessica Golden	...	Baby Shower Friend
Rabbi Irwin Groner	...	The Rabbi
Donna Hanson	...	Clunb Receptionist
Michael Henning	...	Waiter
Loretta Higgins	...	Jean
Lili Kaufman	...	Cashier
Yvette Latimer	...	Day Care Leader
Madge Levinson	...	Woman in Temple
Jesse Mark	...	Baby Idan
Maribeth Monroe	...	Baby Shower Friend
Eric Moss	...	Grocery Bagger
Michelle Murphy	...	Baby Shower Friend
Irving Nusbaum	...	Man in Temple
Tara Schaefer	...	Rose
Brooke Slavik	...	Baby Shower Friend
Curtis Smith	...	Stan The Busboy (as Curtis A. Smith Jr.)
Peggy Thorpe	...	Audrey Jacobs
Teri Tietmeyer	...	Big Haired Lady
Katie Whittemore	...	Erin
Michael Wynsen	...	Jeff

Also Known As:

Marriage Material (USA)

Runtime:

85 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Filming Locations:

Cranbrook Schools - 39221 Woodward Avenue, Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, USA

Company:

General Frolic Productions

aka Marriage material

Writer director Jody Podolsky's Hallmark drama is an unbearable mess, dedicated to her mother and "all who mother". We begin with Alanna Ubach as a New York book publisher going home to the unspecified fall suburbs for Yom Kippur. Ubach being Jewish allows Podolsky to present cartoon stereotypes of Jews as shallow and materialistic, who even talk over the rabbi in temple when he speaks of the "permissiveness of difference", something you would think Jews know a lot about. It doesn't help that Podolsky thrusts these people at us, with comic cutting and appropriately bad music by Andrew Hollander. Presumably Ubach is meant to feel superior to her family, though the weakness in this is that Ubach fails to supply any charisma to her role, and Podolsky doesn't help by giving her wretchedly written scenes of arguments with her boyfriend, Michael B Silver eg "He: Relax. She: Don't enforce passivity". So this unbalance of perspective throws the tone askew, though thankfully the narrative refocuses onto Lesley Ann Warren as Ubach's mother. Granted that LAW is not the Jewish mother type, she has the best scene in the film, after tense behaviour with her husband James Rebhorn, and blue lit flashbacks that reveal nothing. She reacts to news of a friend's illness by breaking down, with Podolsky giving her an unbroken long take. However soon we're back to Ubach and a doubly long scene between mother and daughter that is as wretched and pointless as those between Ubach and Silver. If Podolsky's disservice to the actors isn't enough, her editing in general is heavy handed, and she even supplies a reflective-memory montage like a trailer of her own movie, in the movie!