Coming Up Roses

Independently-produced drama starring Bernadette Peters as the unstable, unemployable mother of a teenage daughter; she's a former stage actress reduced to living in a rundown building, still hoping the ex-husband who walked out on her six years ago will return. Peter Friedman is the city worker who takes a liking to both ladies; he's set up as the proverbial prince with a sad heart, but there's a twist to his character that only serves to make us really uncomfortable. Rachel Brosnahan is fine as 15-year-old Alice, although she looks and talks like a much older girl; her friendship with a neighborhood troublemaker and her job as a drug-runner are both narrative dead-ends. As for Peters, she's professional and adept, as always; she elevates this shopworn material, updated with rougher language and constant police sirens. Screenwriters Lisa Albright (who also directed) and Christina Lazaridi have seen a lot of movies; they know the drill, yet they haven't developed this material enough to make it embraceable. Most audiences would cross the street to avoid these people. * from ****