Stepmom
Short description
Stepmom centres on two women whose lives are bound together by the same family. Jackie is a divorced mother raising her two children, Anna and Ben, while her ex-husband Luke has moved in with Isabel, a fashion photographer who struggles to win over the children. Jackie resents Isabel's presence in her family's life, and Isabel finds herself shut out by children who refuse to accept her. When Jackie learns she is seriously ill, the hostility between the two women gives way to a need to cooperate, and Jackie begins to see Isabel as the person who may end up raising her children.
Chris Columbus directed the film, the seventh of the seventeen features he has directed in chronological order, following Nine Months and preceding Bicentennial Man. The screenplay was written by Ronald Bass, Karen Leigh Hopkins and Jessie Nelson. Julia Roberts plays Isabel and Susan Sarandon plays Jackie, with Ed Harris as Luke, Jena Malone as Anna, Liam Aiken as Ben and Lynn Whitfield as Dr. Sweikert, among a credited cast of fifty-four.
Released in December 1998, the film had a budget of fifty million dollars and took about one hundred and sixty million dollars worldwide. On IMDb it holds a rating of 6.8 from roughly eighty thousand votes, while on TMDB its rating is 7.2 from around fifteen hundred votes. The critics' rating stands at 5.5 from ninety-two reviews, lower than the audience scores.
What's left behind the scenes
- Rejected film titles: "Goodnight Moon", "Promises Kept", "See You in My Dreams", and "Always, Always".
- The film was dedicated to the memory of Irene Columbus, the mother of director Chris Columbus, who died of cancer a year before the film's release.
- Chris Columbus's daughter, Eleanor Columbus, plays a cameo role as a little girl in a ballet class (but is not credited).
- Patrick Doyle composed the film's soundtrack, which was ultimately rejected.
- This was the first theatrical film premiered by the WB television network.
- The song that Isabel (Julia Roberts) sings to Ben (Liam Aiken) in the hospital is called "If I Needed You." It was written by Roberts' ex-husband Lyle Lovett and appeared on his album "Step Inside This House" (1998).
- The film is known worldwide under numerous alternative titles. For example: "Be at My Side" (Spain), "My Best Enemy" (France), and "Side by Side" (Portugal, Germany).
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
