I watched this yesterday not realizing it was made almost 25 years ago and it wasn't all that good. Acting was flat especially from the three main characters. The mother spoke almost entirely in a breathy sort of whisper no matter angry or happy or just doing okay and her facial expression never changed. Also if you consider the mother owed $60,000 in back social security payment for at the most 7-8 years (boys were like 11 and 13 when dad left and SS would end at age 18 for the youngest boy), $60,000 would have been around $700 per month - which was a lot of money back in the late '90's-early 2000's so I don't see why they would have been so horrifically poor especially with the mom working a job. And even considering the time frame, I don't know of any woman who would say, Oh, dear, hubby just embezzled $25,000 from his employer and somehow that's all my fault and then not do any due diligence to make sure it didn't happen again (which it did). The whole thing just fell kind of flat and fakey to me.