First, the people in this family really need to lay off the wine. There'd be a lot less fighting at the family dinners if they did.

Secondly, although this film deals with the universal theme of the loss of a much-loved family patriarch, I had a hard time getting past the feeling that there was a definite tone of pretentiousness to this film: a Hamptons-like feel from a bunch of upper middle-class "intellectuals" who seem to think that they are just so smart and who do very little actual work (yes, they're all employed, but none of the jobs are particularly physical, and they all seem to spend more time in meetings or yammering over a coffee or adult beverage than doing anything productive).

Thirdly, we must get to what this film was perhaps most publicized for . . . at the time this film was shot, the lead character, the family matriarch played by Andie MacDowell, at the age of 59, did her very first nude scenes (these take place in the context of her nervously/guiltily getting back into the dating circuit following her husband's death). As a man moving into middle age, who wouldn't have minded seeing her do such scenes when she was younger, I must admit I was curious (my 17-year old self would've been horrified to read this, but now that I'm getting older myself, the more mature ladies don't look so bad to me:))

And I will say she pulled these scenes off pretty well. She's shown mostly sleeping nude in profile, with very little actually shown, though she does have one fairly lengthy topless scene; she's in decent shape for her age. Her older male lover is also shown nude with her. We don't get to see scenes of older couples like this too often in film, and these were shot very tenderly.

Not a terrible film overall, but many will probably find it too slow-going, not to mention pretentious, and will probably not deem it worthy of a rewatch.