Stepmom Movie Reflection

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I spent the afternoon revisiting the movie Stepmom starring Susan Sarandon and Julia Roberts. When the movie first was released, it was Christmas 1998. I was the stepmother to 2 stepdaughters and one stepson. In addition, I had added to our brood by becoming a biological mom to a daughter (3 years) and a baby boy (4 months). I had the crazy notion that maybe this would be a perfect movie for me to see with my two stepdaughters, Danielle and Nicole over the Christmas break from school. Both resisted, and I recall that I never did see the movie in the theaters. I ended up renting it and watching it alone on VHS several months later. Stepmom is the story about the rocky relationship between Jackie (biological mom) and Isabel (soon-to-be stepmother). In the opening scene, Jackie, …show more content…

I was very defensive of the character of Isabel, becoming, at times irate with Jackie for insulting Isabel constantly. This was so commonplace that at one point her son, Ben (played by Liam Aiken), tells her that if she really wants him to hate Isabel, he will. At this point in the movie, I really expected the mother to realize the position she was putting her children in and try to mend her ways. But, alas, this does not happen and mom continues to insult poor Isabel to no avail, causing the daughter, Anne (played by Jena Malone)to begin to despise Isabel and is sure to make a point of making Isabel’s life miserable. This continues throughout the movie, even after Jackie is diagnosed with cancer, and realizes that Isabel some day will be the only mother figure her children will have. I remember loathing Jackie at the time, relating to my own rocky relationship with my stepchildren’s mother. She, too, would take digs at me on a regular basis and took all conversations with the kids as a chance to try and turn them against me. So, Jackie was the evil villain of the story in my 1998

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