Charms for the Easy Life

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Charms for the Easy Life ★★½ 2002

Southern matriarch and holistic healer, Miss Charlie Kate (Rowlands) has definite opinions—she loathes her no-account son-in-law and won't set foot in her daughter Sophie's (Rogers) house. Fortunately, he eventually dies and Miss Charlie moves in to help look after granddaughter Margaret (Pratt). Miss Charlie has a generally low opinion of men since her husband ran off but the more fragile Sophie is pleased to have a suitor (Johnson) and teen Margaret also finds a boy (Mitchell) who thinks she's neat. Set in the mid-1940s; based on Kaye Gibbon's 1993 novel. Graceful and charming and all three actresses keep the sentimental excess to a minimum. 111m/C VHS, DVD . Gena Rowlands, Mimi Rogers, Susan May Pratt, Geordie Johnson, Kenneth Mitchell; D: Joan Micklin Silver; W: Angela Shelton; C: Jean Lepine; M: Van Dyke Parks. CABLE