7/10
"Where have you been so long?"
16 September 2019
Ray Liotta a typical ad man from the Eisenhower 50s has just lost his wife and his daughter Tina Majorino her mother. He's needing a housekeeper and babysitter very badly. He starts interviewing a variety of candidates not all of them women. But Whoopi Goldberg playing the title role sort of ingratiates herself with both father and daughter.

Soon enough there's an attraction between the two of them, but this is not 2019 it is the 50s and before the Civil Rights Act. They get a lot of fisheyed stares and a racial crack or two. And that is both of them as Goldberg's own family says to stick to her own kind.

Whoopi's scenes with Tina are really special they're what drive the film. It also makes it a family film in every sense of the word.

Two movie oldtimers, K.T. Stevens and Don Ameche make their farewell appearances. Ameche has only a few scenes and you can see how the ravages of cancer are killing him slowly. A lot like Edward G. Robinson and Soylent Green.

There's also a nice performance by Erica Yohn as Liotta's mom and what a Yiddishe Mama she is. Ameche is his father.

This is a wonderful film and with interracial couples far more accepted now it's a look back on some brave people.
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