I'll Be Right There

Saw this at the 2024 Annapolis Film Festival. First time attending a film festival.

Appreciated this snippet from the program:

"We go to the movies to be entertained, educated, thrilled, horrified, to laugh or to cry and importantly, enjoy a respite away from our face-paced world"

This new favorite comfort movie of mine. It is incredibly charming and full with love. I really hope this gets a respectable theatrical release so I can show my mom. Really fun experience attending my first ever film festival. Thank you, Annapolis Film Festival.

Also, something cool-I sat in the row directly in front of Carmela Soprano (Edie Falco).

Edie Falco? Star. Charlie Tahan? Star. Jeannie Berlin? C'mon. Everything that you'd want from a heart-warming story-line filled with comedy AND more.

Like many women with families, Wanda (Edie Falco) is the glue that bonds her clan together. They bond around trips to the ice cream parlor. They bond around their wacky family history. They also bond together through their competitively dysfunctional behavior, as depicted in the new dramedy, I'll Be Right There.

Life in Pearl River, NJ, hasn't been easy for the family. Son Mark (Charlie Tahan) spends his time flitting from one illicit behavior to another - a little drug habit here, a little breaking and entering there, with mom on speed dial to bail him out of a jam. Daughter Sarah (Kayli Carter), almost nine months into her first pregnancy, while simultaneously prepping for her dream wedding, is a hypochondriac. She spends her time berating her spouse-to-be as not being the sharpest pencil in the box. Mom Grace (Jennie Berlin) is convinced she's dying of cancer. Dressing as if she's going to her own funeral, she's elated to find she 'only' has leukemia and lights up a cigarette in front of Wanda to celebrate the 'good news'. Ex-husband Henry (Bradley Whitford), now saddled with three young children in his newer family, is also saddled with huge debts and tells Wanda there's no way he can help pay for their daughter's wedding.

Constantly surrounded by a revolving series of dramas, Wanda's life is filled with needy people. While it exhausts her, she thrives on the chaos, believing that if she's not the ringmaster, the circus tent would fold up. She'd never admit that she enjoys controlling every situation, but she always dives in to help, even when that help is not being requested. It's been going on for years. Finally, now, while she's 'helping', she's also coming to the realization that, like many women in similar situations, she's lost track of who SHE is, what Wanda wants for herself. Grace recognizes that trait in her daughter and tells Wanda, "There are some things you have no control of."

Both kids, who have reached adulthood in years, while obviously not in emotional maturity, resent their father for leaving and having a new family, and blame him and their mother for their own failures. Wanda is currently involved in not one but two relationships outside her family, but is realizing that neither of them are fulfilling for her as a person. She is even offered help from both, but denies each offer. Wanda's reached a breaking point.

But what do you do when you believe you're one who has to be strong for everyone else? That everything will fall apart if you're not right there for them? Especially when, on the rare occasions that you ask for help, and that help is denied.

Mothers, and women in general, will see themselves in Wanda. Wondering if she made the right choices, wondering if the mistakes her kids make are her own fault. Has she done enough? Has she done too much? How Wanda is finally able to let go and move on with her own life is the crux of the film. I'll Be Right There shows how humanly imperfect most families are. Though viewers may not have this family's specific issues, they're sure to recognize and embrace the humanity of the characters.

I stopped watching when she started carrying the bike upstairs while all the other bikes were, wisely, outside the house. I thought nothing good could come of such a movie and gave up. After all, you want to see smart behavior, even if it's labeled as comedy. For the same reason, I don't watch silly Adam Sandler movies as I know his pants often fall down. Do not waste your time ,to se the gym exercise. Do not fall for the good actress as often they make mistake too. If the director would told me to carry the bike two flights up , I would refuse. Thus put on the old but good movies with Gene Hackman instead of this.

Just saw this at Annapolis Film Festival and want to watch again immediately. This intelligent, witty, and pitch-perfect character study follows Wanda (Edie Falco), a woman who will drop everything to help out a family member... And lately, they just all seem to need way too much help. The title, "I'll Be Right There" perfectly sums up her character. Impressively, the film does not seek to reduce this type of person, and we all know someone like this, or ARE this person.

This film will give you a lot to reflect on, no matter where you fall on the scale of being a 'Giver' (If you're a 10, chances are you're not only neglecting yourself but also enabling bad behavior and making other people more dependent on you... If you're a 1, chances are you are so afraid of getting used that your relationships suffer).

This is a movie for adults, putting this question of "How much helping is too much?" at center stage. Edie Falco makes you feel the exhaustion and the worry, and keeps the audience from judging her choices, which constantly surprise. She is not an idea. Her character has layers of specificity and many sides that aren't apparent right from the start. This kind of storytelling is a delicate soufflé - and it flies in the face of a lot of pressure for screenwriters to amp up conflict and and give the audience big emotional signposts.

Based on reading the summary, I was expecting a different kind of film, one that had an agenda to criticize this kind of helicopter parenting and the way it can yield floundering, helpless adult children.

This is certainly a subtext of the story - How does Wanda's enabling behavior affect those around her? But Jim Beggarly's script in the hands of director Brendan Walsh has so much more on it's mind.

There were times early on where I felt resltess - "Where is this movie going?" A few scenes, including an amazing monologue by Jeannie Berlin as Wanda's mother, seem take their time and don't have a clear impact on the scenes that follow. By the end, it's clear that every lived-in moment, all the random details of Wanda's chaotic week, have created a tapestry so rich that it invites true reflection of very adult problems that we often never vocalize to people around us, even though they are central to our daily ups and downs.

I can imagine some people having life-changing conversations if they were to watch this movie with a sibling, a parent, or their own adult children.

Truly sublime filmmaking. It doesn't announce itself as important, or push buttons to get your emotions flowing. I hope it finds a devoted fans regardless. I count myself as one.

This is a family drama with much humor. IMDb page doesn't specify where it was filmed but in one street scene we see the sign for "Quinn Podiatry" and that is in Pearl River, NY, just near the NY/NJ state line. And, I suppose, in other smaller communities in NJ and NY just upstream from New York city.

The cast contain a number of good, experienced actors and each creates an interesting character. The story revolves around Edie Falco as Wanda. She works as a bookkeeper for several small businesses in her area.

She has a pregnant daughter who is planning her wedding. She has a young adult son who never seems to be on a good track in life. Trouble seems to follow him.

She also has an ex-husband who, with his new family, may not be able to pay half of their daughter's wedding. Plus she is being pursued romantically by two different people, a man and a woman.

In essence the whole story is about Wanda coming to grips with her own life and happiness and it is a good ride.

My wife and I watched it at home, after our usual Saturday evening steak and red wine dinner, streaming on Peacock.