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This
is My Life
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This is My Life is a disappointing directorial debut from novelist and scriptwriter Nora Ephron (Heartburn, 1986). The film has the perfect hook for a dysfunctional family affair: Dottie (the marvellous Julie Kavner) is a single mother with two daughters, pursuing a career as a stand-up comedian. When not leaving her kids alone for long stretches, she is shamelessly using their lives as gag material. Much of the film is flatly handled, and Ephron sets up a curious structure of dual voice-over narrations – Dottie's versus that of her older daughter Erica (Samantha Mathis) – which goes nowhere and is abruptly abandoned. Still, there are some funny and poignant details conveying the budding romances of the girls. Singer Carly Simon, who contributed a hideous score to Heartburn, does only a marginally less awful job here. MORE Ephron: Mixed Nuts, Hanging Up, Sleepless in Seattle, You've Got Mail © Adrian Martin August 1993 |
