This film really wasn’t what I expected at all; so much so, that my first viewing attempt ended right after the opening drunken sex in a toilet cubicle scene – it’s not exactly a comedy!

I’m not entirely sure where to peg this film, apart from chick flick, relationship movie. Perhaps you need to have a sister to really ‘get’ it. As it was, I didn’t really like either character too much: Cameron Diaz was vilely irresponsible, Toni Collette too much of a doormat. And the story didn’t stray far from ‘families are awful, but you need them’ – something to which I do not subscribe.

Still. Shirley McLaine is always fab, and while the movie wasn’t my cup of tea, it was pretty well done and did keep me watching right til the soppy end. Superb poetry, too.