Santa Fe New Mexican
February 9, 1990
Bette Midler gives a tour-de-force performance as a self-sacrificing single mother who struggles against great odds to raise her daughter.
This remake of Stella Dallas is surprisingly contemporary and topical, considering the age of Olive Higgins Prouty‘s source novel, first filmed as a silent movie. The melodrama can turn sappy, but it’s more coherent than Beaches and leavened by welcome doses of humor and Midler’s kitschy schtick.
Trini Alvarado, Marsha Mason and the ubiquitous John Goodman co-star. (PG-13
