Lovely & Amazing

Lovely & Amazing follows a mother and her three daughters as each struggles with her own insecurities and disappointments. Michelle, who makes crafts that shops will not stock, worries about work and her marriage, while her sister Elizabeth, an actress whose career seems to be starting, takes out her frustrations on those close to her. Their mother Jane is preoccupied with her weight and with the attention of men, and the youngest daughter, Annie, adopted and still a child, observes the family's anxieties from the outside. The four women lead largely separate lives until trouble draws them together.

Nicole Holofcener wrote and directed the film, her second feature after Angry and the second entry in a run that continued with Friends with Money, Please Give, Enough Said, The Land of Steady Habits and You Hurt My Feelings. Catherine Keener, Brenda Blethyn, Emily Mortimer and Raven Goodwin play the four women, with Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor and Clark Gregg among the supporting cast.

Released in August 2002, the film runs 92 minutes and earned about 5 million dollars worldwide, a modest return for a small independent production. On IMDb it holds a 6.7 rating from roughly 8,100 votes, while on TMDB it stands at 6.1 from a much smaller sample of 92. A critics' rating of 7.4 from 123 reviews places it above both audience scores, suggesting reviewers responded more warmly than general viewers.