In the Land of Women

This stridently tender dramedy by the elder son of director Lawrence Kasdan (The Big Chill) stars Brody (The O.C.) as Carter Webb, a struggling 26-year-old TV writer and paragon of male sensitivity. Dumped by his movie-star girlfriend (Anaya), Carter quits L.A. to take sensitive care of his grandmother (Dukakis) in a leafy Detroit suburb.

Grandma has the adorable subtype of senile dementia, and is a bit of a handful with her crusty zingers and oblique pearls of wisdom. But she’s not so far gone as to monopolize all of Carter’s sensitivity, and he considerately makes the surplus available to the sensitivity-starved females of the neighboring Hardwicke family, all three of whom fall in love with him.

First to succumb is housewife Sarah (Ryan), who confides to the empathetic man-child about her breast lump and failing marriage. Next is teenage daughter Lucy (Stewart), who opens up to him about boy troubles and conflicts with her parents. Finally there’s preteen Paige (Vega), whose attraction to Carter is that of one pure and innocent heart to another.