Now and Then

Producer Demi Moore intended, it seems, a coming-of-age tale in the Stand by Me mould. What she ended up with was a syrupy dose of boyfriends and female bonding - in short, yet another uninspired 'women's film'. Fulfilling a childhood promise to 'always be there for each other', bohemian writer Samantha (Moore), actress Teeny (Griffith), and doctor Roberta (O'Donnell) return to their hometown, the bizarrely named Gaslight Addition, as Chrissy (Wilson) prepares for the birth of her first child. As they reflect on the pact which brought them together, the film reverts to 1970 and the start of their friendship. Director Glatter cut her teeth of NYPD Blue, but she brings none of that TV series' realism and punch to her feature debut, favouring instead a pastel-hued mise-en-scène. For a film which defines its characters entirely in relation to each other, there's a curious lack of chemistry between the leads. Only in the childhood sequences are the undercurrents and tensions of the various relationships explored.