We are coddled with bittersweet cocoa, dazzled with movie-star melodramatics and then trotted off to warm beds with assurance that as hard as life may get, there will always be a movie to trivialize our pain.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Jan 5, 2023

It's a lovely daydream, made lovelier by the fiercely maternal performance of Sarandon as a lioness protecting her cubs, and Julia Roberts as a mass of insecurity trying to measure up to impossible standards.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Apr 2, 2019

Well, if unearned pathos is your cup of tea, drink up.

| Apr 1, 2019

Under Chris Columbus' direction, they make a pretty but utterly misleading picture in which cheap sentiment is used to supply easy, false resolutions to agonizing issues.

| Apr 1, 2019

Roberts holds her own with a very attractive performance, admittedly given that hers is the character who is likeable, good-humoured and too good to be true.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Apr 1, 2019

The result is a cartoonish two-hour-plus soap opera of little distinction, played by actors who deserve better and should have known better.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Apr 1, 2019

A disjointed hybrid of domestic comedy and mortal illness that might have been written by a support group of lobotomy survivors.

| Apr 1, 2019

Much of Stepmom's success is due to its three appealing lead players, all of whom lend class and intelligence to the enterprise.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Apr 1, 2019

Chris Columbus directs as if he's handling a moral diagram: Stepmom is so full of understanding it made me want to throw up.

| Apr 1, 2019

[Stepmom] offers some useful insights into how feelings of jealousy and betrayal can limit the potential of family relationships. But these ideas are more or less undermined by the movie's maddeningly typical glamorizing of illness.

| Apr 1, 2019

Director Chris Columbus has been doing this for years, and as conservative propaganda goes (the message is good mums sacrifice all for their kids) it's as smooth as butter.

| Jun 24, 2006

On balance, Chris Columbus' direction is on task. Roberts holds her own very nicely against the formidable Sarandon.

| Jul 21, 2005

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Mar 19, 2002

Ultimately, Stepmom remains too glossy, contrived and schematic to sustain the interest; its pat, melodramatic pronouncements endeavour simply to reconstitute its divided family without interrogating its essential structures.

| Mar 5, 2002

Sarandon and Roberts seem to have great fun sparring with each other, and Roberts does an especially appealing job as the striving stepparent.

| Feb 14, 2001

Not since 1979's Kramer vs. Kramer has a mainstream movie more accurately, insightfully, humorously or tear-jerkingly dramatized family life in our time than Stepmom!

Full Review | Original Score: 4/4 | Jan 1, 2000

You won't be able to suspend your disbelief, but you will need extra tissues.

Full Review | Jan 1, 2000

Who knew Sarandon's headlight eyes and Roberts' high-beam smile would complement one another so well?

Full Review | Jan 1, 2000

The acting is good, as is a fair portion of the dialogue and quite a number of individual scenes.

Full Review | Jan 1, 2000

Stepmom is a perfect holiday picture. It's uplifting and reaffirming about the virtues of all families, including stepfamilies.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Jan 1, 2000