Virtually every wannabe feminist film since Thelma and Louise has taken its cue from a male film, but instead of doing an imaginative variation like T&L, has settled for out and out rip off and a simple minded "girls are better than guys" message. Bad Girls was just Young Guns in skirts and Now and Then is just girly remake of Stand By Me, which frankly doesn't deserve the humiliation of being mentioned in the same review. Demi Moore and co. reminisce at their friend's baby wake 20 years later about the summer where they tried to solve the death of a boy in their town, which is acted out by the likes of Christina Ricci and Thora Birch. However that is merely a feeble plot device, because what mostly happens is that the girls giggle about sex, talk about puberty, take revenge on boys, sing on their bicycles and share each other's troubles. How fascinating. What little plot does go on is boring, predicable (almost perfunctory) and sickly sentimental pap. Stand By Me was a great rites of passage drama with great, believable characters, a driving plot, a touching script and performance to match, all handled superbly by director Rob Reiner. Now and Then is simply a shameless waste of a talented set of young stars to satisfy the whims of the older stars. Especially Moore, (who also produced) and is further proof of her habit of wasting good talent for her own purposes: see also The Scarlet Letter. The only noteworthy thing in the entire the film is how anyone could have thought that the elf-like Ricci could have grown up to become Rosie O'Donnell!
Review of Now and Then
