I know a lot of folks talked about this movie being so heartwrenching, and at time a tear jerker, but this movie is as close to my childhood as I can imagine. We weren't quite as poor, but I really grew up in a half-finished house and we were pretty tight on money. We never finished our house, but my mom sent three kids to damn good colleges and private schools while supporting us on a teacher's salary.
And Kathy Bates nailed it just right. I think that this movie portrays a lot of things about people who are struggling to get by, and it does it in a way that is very evenly balanced. I mean, her character is mostly sympathetic, but she shuts people out too. She's proud to a fault. She wants so much to do it all on her own, that she doesn't seem to realize just how much help she needs. That sense that she is all alone in it; that's how we felt. I'm sure that's how my parents felt. I liked how she found friends who knew how to handle her pride and still help her.
I loved this movie but it is hard for me to watch!
I never got nails for Christmas, though!
I think the bit about the disclaimer that this is all fiction is just the standard CYA language the lawyers put in at the end of every movie. There's lots of novels that are "fiction" that are true.
