User reviews

A chick flick for chicks of all ages, "The Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood" tells of four Louisiana ladies who establish their secret Ya-Ya sisterhood, bound by blood and oath and honor, at a young age and who remain friends over the years providing each other with friendship and support. The film's thin storyline is about one such "sister" (Burstyn/Judd) who has issues with her adult daughter (Bullock) and her sister Ya-Ya's who come to her rescue much to her dismay. What ensues is a warmly funny kind of jambalaya which makes up for its gaping plotholes with personality, charm, and rambunciousness as it stumbles through it story finally arriving gasping and wheezing at its feel good conclusion. Gagging material for grinches, most will find the "Ya-Yas" are just too damned much fun not to like on some level. (B)

"Sisterhood" is a film that will make you laugh, cry, and remember the most important things in life, like friendship, family, truth, and relationships with those around you. It takes many trips down the path of life and is filled with laughter, sorrow, drama, but all around triumph. Maybe not exactly the same as Rebecca Wells great book, but pretty close.

After all the hype and comparisons to 'Steel Magnolias', 'Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood', sadly, did not do much box office, which was a shame, as it is a more intimate, realistic vision of women and life-long friendships than the glossier 'Magnolias'.

Four girl friends in Louisiana create a secret sisterhood in 1937, swearing eternal devotion to each other, and they remain best friends through all the triumphs and tragedies in their lives. When the daughter of one of them (Sandra Bullock), a successful playright, has an interview with Time magazine in which she condemns her mother's impact on her life, the mother (Ellen Burstyn, who is superb!) goes ballistic, cutting the daughter out of her life, totally. In charges the other members of the Sisterhood, kidnapping Bullock, and attempting to make things right!

The film then jumps back and forth in time, with Ashley Judd playing the younger Burstyn. She has a lot of happy adventures with her Ya-Ya sisters, but also has to deal with racism, a jealous religious zealot of a mother, an overly loving father (David Rasche, breaking free of his usual comic roles), a true love who dies in WWII, and a family with a guy she 'settles' for (played, in present day, by the wonderful James Garner). There is also a dark secret that is the core of the mother/daughter alienation, which must be dealt with in order for the rift between Bullock and Burstyn to heal (No, I will NOT give it away!)

If you do the math about the years covered, you realize the present-day story SHOULD be taking place in the seventies, at the latest, but this doesn't hurt the overall effectiveness of the picture. As the other present-day sisters, Fionnula Flanagan, Shirley Knight, and (especially) Maggie Smith are WONDERFUL, as is Angus MacFadyen, as Bullock's sympathetic and likable fiance.

While this is unabashedly a 'chick flick', something I really liked was that they DIDN'T fall back on that old chestnut of somebody dying to serve as a convenient catalyst for change and the healing process. And the dialog is full of wickedly hilarious one-liners about men, alcohol, friendship, and growing old!

Don't miss this gem!

Movies that feature "women-only" themes are few indeed and at any given time we can count their existence on one finger. Hollywood loves reminding us that "it's a man's world, baby" and I would hazard a guess that 95% of current box office offerings are male-centered (That is, male = hero, victim, anti-hero; with a female = smart talking' and lookin' and barely visible unless required to provide booty, tears, or encouragement to - you guessed it, the male!).

So when a movie with a female-centered cast and theme (trivialized by the term "chick flick") is served to us, I watch with a wary eye and a hopeful heart. Why? Because most chick flicks are written, directed, and produced by men...maybe that's why there are so few of them! To the credit of The Divine Secrets of The Ya-Ya Sisterhood, it didn't disappoint my heart or my head.

The Ya-Ya Sisterhood takes the universal theme of mother-daughter conflict and serves it up as refreshingly as a mint julep on a scorching day. Taking place in Louisiana, this movie leads us through a merry romp of friendship and fierce loyalties, stopping along the way to tug at our heart strings and drag out the tissues (don't all good chick flicks?).

The plot centers around a young director (Sandra Bullock) who is estranged from her Old School Southern Belle mother (Ellen Burstyn) and nervous about her upcoming nuptials. Through the "divine" intervention of the Ya-Ya's - a three woman tag-team of family friends - (played by Maggie Smith, Shirley Knight, and Fionnula Flanagan) the daughter is able to heal old familial wounds and welcome her new role as daughter, wife (and future mother).

Yet, layered within this beautiful film is three levels of female experience, told through the life of Maiden-Mother-Salty Sage women Burstyn and Ashley Judd. (I'd like to see Judd get a nod at the next award show for this multi-faceted role.) Add to that a funny and tender juxtaposition of the men in their lives (James Garner and Angus MacFadyen) and everyone is sure to get their Ya-Ya's out! Unforgettable in every way!

I went and saw this movie w/ my mom(like so many others lol). We both thought we were going to see a comedy. Well, it definitely was not what we expected. My mom didn't really like it, but i'm actually glad i saw it with her. Sandra Bullock is my favorite actress(along with Julia Stiles w/ Reese Witherspoon right behind) and although this isn't her best movie, she still did a good job. This movie was much sadder than I had expected. But I assure you, it was NOT a chick flick. I noticed in other reviews a lot of people complained it was hard to follow but I didn't think it was. This wasn't the funniest movie or the greatest movie or anything like that, but i still think it was really good with a great cast. I recommend this movie only to people who can appreciate movies that aren't all sugar-coated with hollywood-unreality.

I sat down on a Saturday night at 9:30 to watch this movie. I watched it through twice before I went to bed that night, twice again on Sunday, and now it's Monday night and I've just watched it all the way through again. And I NEVER do that!

I came to this movie with little or no expectations. I had not read the book (but I will!), although I knew it had been a bestseller for awhile, and was on Oprah's list. I hadn't even paid any attention to who was in it, so was thrilled to see one of my very favorite actresses, Ellen Burstyn.

I can't really tell you what made this movie speak to me the way it did. I had a very happy childhood, and so couldn't relate on that level at all. The cast was phenomenal, particularly Sandy Bullock as Siddalee.

All I can say is what someone before me already said - this is one you should judge for yourself, not by what others say.

As one of four males that was forced to see the Ya-Ya's I knew I was in serious trouble. This is the first time I have ever been in a theatre and it smelled "nice".

Sans the female audience, The Devine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisters turns out to be a well written script that mixes some light comedy with dark subject matter. History is left to the poets and sometimes they get it wrong. The Ya-Ya sisters teach a quick lesson in slide of hand as the things we believe growing up are very different that what actually happened.

Normally I like to write longer reviews but this is one of those rare movies that would be too easy to spoil trying to describe the movie or the characters. Suffice it to say that each character brings a special value to the screen and ultimately we end on the high road, not the Hollywood road for movie production. This is no oscar movie but if your tired of explosions and superheros, then here is this summers refreshing break at the movies. Just don't forget to have you husband sit by you with the Klinex.

Despite its silly title, which just refers to a childhood game, this is a profoundly serious movie about reconciliation.

It spans three generations of women, tormented by religion and mental breakdown. It explores three generations of mother-daughter relationships.

This would be a great movie for any child of an abusive mother.

Siddalee, the Sandra Bullock character, gradually comes to understand her grandmother and mother and is thus gradually able to forgive them.

It is a frustrating movie. I found myself demanding the plot bound along with series of Hollywood contrivances, but it meanders and backtracks, tantalising then not delivering, much like real life.

The unbearably aching mood of reconciliation and nostalgia gradually develops, partly due to the long suffering, ever-loving Shep Walker (James Garner in a low-profile role quite unlike the ones he normally plays), and Connor (Angus Macfadyen), Siddalee's ever-patient Irish boyfriend.

Maggie Smith is in it, reason enough to watch it.

The movie recreates the south in lush Technicolor over three generations, a visual feast.

If you are embarrassed to cry in public, make sure to watch this alone.

I liked this movie. I really did. Someone very close to me has a mother very much like this. It's reality folks, not everyone has a sensible loving mother that grasps the role of "motherhood" like a duck to water. Some people remain stuck in a selfish state where they blame everyone/thing else for all their unhappiness and the misdirection of their lives. I'm glad there's a movie that brought that subject to light. One user said the movie is celebrating an alcoholic, but that's untrue. You're watching a woman go further and further into a downward spiral of self-pitying despair and hatred for the events of her life. I also didn't find Vivi's mother to be evil, but she seemed to have been desperately trying to claim her role as a respectable wife. When your husband treats horses better than you, you get a little miffed. He dismissed her as his partner in life for a child she gave him, so the woman aimed her frustrations at her child, instead of her husband. At that time, what could she have really done to the husband? He would've beaten her most likely. I appreciated the fact that Vivi was flawed. Just humanly flawed and admitted it. It sucks that people have parents like this, but Sidda learned to deal with it in her own way. I'm glad it wasn't a typical reaction, like drugs or promiscuity. She just accepted her mother for what she is: flawed and screwed up. Motherhood doesn't make you unselfish and well-versed in letting go of your troubles. That's something you learn over time, and the movie showed that. It might take 40-odd years as it did them, or someone could get it the moment the child is born. What I got from the film is that your parents had dreams and nightmares before you came into the picture, and it takes a lot out of them to come to terms with being responsible for a life that they may or may not be ready for. I also really loved the part where Sidda begins to question her ability to be a good mother and wife. I think that resonated well. I certainly would start to wonder. Parents can screw up their kids easily I tell ya. It's not a responsibility to enter into lightly. I'm sure there were flaws like the accents of Louisiana and technical stuff, but altogether, the movie really reaches many levels.

Divine secrets of the ya ya sisterhood is not as good as I thought it would be. It does feature good performances from Ellen Burstyn, Sandra bullock, Maggie smith, and Ashley Judd. Judd is particularly great here, her best performance If u ask me. The script is so so. That's the key with this film, the actor's performances are great, but the script is questionable. The storyline is sweet, with some mature and very heavy subject matters. It is handled nicely I think, but there are just soma kinda uneven places in the movie. I dint think it's a bad movie at all, I just personally believe it could have been better than it was. 6/10

This movie is in the same vein as Khouris' last, Grace under pressure, where she, literally, said: Stand by your man. Even if he porks your best friend.

Here, she says: forgive Mama everything, her alcoholism, her mistreating of her own family, her lovelessness during Siddalee's childhood. Because of that "dark secret" (pathetic, really), that only lasted a few months.

But we saw it coming, already at the end of Thelma & Louise, didn't we? Girls/women should either put up, shut up - or die!

Disgusting movie.

This film is really a celebration of female relationships between; mothers and daughters, between girl friends and between wife and husband. There are numerous flash backs, but the film flows at a good pace that it is not a distraction at all.

The storyline is very light hearted to begin with, but gets darker. Ashley Judd does a great performance as an Alcohol addicted mother and Ellen Burstyn is also good as the older character, played by Ashley Judd. The humour is funny enough and does not go overboard. See this film with your girl friends, and make sure you bring a box of Kleenex with you. A two thumbs up.

Better like lots of flashback because this film is full of it as it bounces back and forth over several decades. The viewer must stay the course to find the secret of the sisterhood and why one of the girls grew up skewed off center causing years of grief for her entire family. A resounding "yes" to this one.

`The Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood' is about a mother/daughter conflict and then friends come to the rescue. A simple plot about some of our society's unimaginably complex unwritten and unspoken rules.

Ya-Ya is a wonderful cinematic experience. The acting and dialog are absolutely first rate and every major role is virtually perfect. They will be throwing darts at the cast credits to pick award winners. The movie is worth the price of admission just to see Maggie Smith perform even when she has no dialogue.

The movie's most remarkable aspect is what happens when it is viewed through a testosterone filter. It is illuminating to look at the IMDB voting demographics. One quarter of the males voting on this movie have given it a `1' out of 10 while only about 3% of the females gave it a `1'. Considering that there always appears to be a 3-5% background noise on any voting this an astounding gender discrepancy. As a 56 year old male it has only been in the last decade that I've had any inkling of the intricacies of female interactive dynamics. I suspect that puts me ahead of the curve as far as males go. As a society we indoctrinate our young females into the issues of the emotional power struggle, the dynamics of the `pecking order', and day-to-day collegial help and support at a level far removed from that which most males experience. I won't argue whether or not this is sexist but I believe the observation to be valid. This movie deals with these issues and, as such, I suspect the fundamental substance of the movie is illusive for much of the male audience.

At its heart this is not a chick movie. A `chick movie' is about things that female moviegoers like. This movie is about what it is to be raised a female in our society. Ya Ya 9/10

I read the book that this movie was based on and found it amazing. it portrayed a new genre of women (really cheeky and bad but so loving and wonderful and sisterly that it made up). The book was excellent and the story flowed so when I heard it was to be made into a movie I was eager to see it. I was however, unfortunately disappointed with the results. The actors were suitably and quite well cast and the acting was good too, especially by the actors who played Vivi, however the story just didn't work. It missed out essential details and pretty much changed the storyline to suit a budget and time period, the fact that Sidda didn't willingly go to her friends cabin to find herself and she was drugged by the yayas just didn't make sense and the movie genre changed from what could have been a drama with comedy mixed in to a miss matched and wrongly timed comedy that wasn't really that funny. I was disappointed with the film and feel it might have been better not to make it into a movie at all. It lacked so much of the southern culture and spirit that made the book a best seller.

This film goes into the category of "Chick-Flick" but there are some "Chick-Flicks" that are very well made. Unfortunately, this is not one of those. Story starts out with 4 girls in the woods about 50 years ago who invent a club just for them called..Oh, you know. Well, forward ahead to modern day and we see Sidda Walker (Sandra Bullock) who is a successful playwright and she gives an interview to Time magazine and says her childhood was difficult. The article comes out and Sidda's mother Vivi (Ellen Burstyn) reads it and is furious and writes her out of her will and tears up her photo's and acts very melodramatic. The rest of the "Ya-Ya's" are Teensy (Fionnula Flanagan), Necie (Shirley Knight) and Caro (Maggie Smith) and they travel to where Sidda lives and spike her drink and somehow get her back to Louisiana but don't tell Vivi that they have her. Well, she finds out from Sidda's fiance' Conner (Angus Macfadyen) that they have her but she is not allowed to see her. While at their place Sidda looks at their old scrapbook and then the film uses flashbacks to view several events including why Vivi was a difficult mother and her bout with depression and being hooked on pills. This film is the directorial debut of writer Callie Khouri who wrote the screenplay for "Thelma and Louise" and she displays tremendous patience in her storytelling and the film goes on way to long. The characters all play Southern Belles and there are times during the film that it is difficult to understand exactly what they are saying. Smith is an English actress and her Southern accent is just not believable. As I watched this film I kept waiting for the big scene that is suppose to tell us about Vivi but it never really comes because we already know in advance about her troubles and yet the film is still a solid two hours long. James Garner plays Shep and the actor that plays him as a young man appears to be a good foot taller then he is. I didn't hate this film because with a great cast like this it would be impossible. The most effective scenes in the film come from Ashley Judd who is suppose to be a young Vivi and although I'm not convinced of how good of an actress she is, she is good in this film. This film could have benefited from more editing and more realistic dialogue. Great cast tries hard but except from a few scattered moments this is a big disappointment. "Ya-Ya"!

Excellent is an understatement. The movie, which I saw yesterday, was exactly like the book, which I read a few months ago. The actors captured the characters perfectly. The story was moving, powerful and heart-warming. It makes you feel sad, then happy, then sad and then happy again. Maggie Smith was hilarious as Caro and Ellen Burstyn was outstanding as Vivi Dahlin'. Ashley Judd played the part of young Vivi brilliantly. It's probably her finest performance yet. All in all, the movie was wonderfully made and didn't deviate from the book, like so many films do. You HAVE to see this film.

The skewed time line is what kept me from enjoying this movie more. Siddel's childhood had to be in the 1950's, which would mean that Sandra Bullock was playing a woman about 50. Nothing in the movie (look at the way Sandra Bullock was dressed and her hair) hinted at the present time being in the 1980's. Other than that issue, this was a good movie. I loved Siddel's boyfriend's frustration with his soon to be in-laws, he should have gotten a larger role. James Garner is always great, but unbelievable that any man could live with a wife like his all those years and come out of it with his mild demeanor. In reality he would either be a henpecked shadow of a man, beaten down, or he would be as bad as his wife.

This movie has been on the pay channels so long and its mere presence on my digital cable menu has been an irritant for months. So I figured that maybe if I actually just watched it, it may go away.

Hopefully my sacrifice will benefit the greater good because it was such a lame piece of celluloid I was wishing for any kind of interruption to put me out of my misery. Unfortunately, I didn't get it so suffer I did.

This is a classic `chick flick' in the spirit of Fried Green Tomatoes, only it wasn't remotely clever or endearing. Sandra Bullock whines, throws tantrums and sulks throughout the film while `learning about why her mother is the way she is'. Ellen Burstyn, who plays her mother, is grossly underused as is the fantastic Maggie Smith. The entire film was embarrassingly predictable, and when I presume I was supposed to go, `Awwww' with a tear in my eye and clapping my hands with glee I was looking around for a receptacle.

Female empowerment? No. Waste of time? Yes.

--Shelly