Little seen outside the US, Franklin's literate drama, based on an
autobiographical memoir, has journalist Zellweger returning home to
look after her cancer-stricken mother (Streep). Her father, a prickly
academic ideally cast in Hurt, keeps offloading responsibility,
wrapped up in the disappointments of his career. The dramatic focus is
on the beautifully played reconciliation of father and daughter as
they square up to the inevitable: Streep's deterioration is all the
more affecting for not being insistently thrust in our faces.
