Steel Magnolias

Steel Magnolias is set in Chinquapin, a small town in Louisiana, where Truvy Jones runs a beauty salon that serves as a gathering place for a circle of women. Among her clients are M'Lynn Eatenton, who is preparing for her daughter Shelby's wedding; the sharp-tongued Ouiser Boudreaux; the mayor's widow Clairee Belcher; and Annelle Dupuy, a young newcomer who takes a job at the salon. Shelby, a diabetic, decides to have a child against her doctor's advice, and the women rally around M'Lynn when the consequences of that choice bring grief to the group.

Herbert Ross directed the film, the tenth of the thirteen he made, following The Secret of My Success and preceding My Blue Heaven. Robert Harling wrote the screenplay, adapted from his own play, and Ray Stark produced it for TriStar Pictures and Rastar Productions. Sally Field plays M'Lynn, with Dolly Parton as Truvy, Shirley MacLaine as Ouiser, Daryl Hannah as Annelle, Olympia Dukakis as Clairee and Julia Roberts as Shelby. The production cost about 15 million dollars and took roughly 96 million worldwide.

On IMDb the film holds a critics' rating of 6.5 out of 10 from 82 reviews, while on TMDB it scores 7.2 out of 10 from 770 votes, indicating that general viewers have responded more warmly than reviewers did.