Start to finish I was fascinated with this film. The entire time I may have had expectations of what would come next, but what then came about continued to keep me off balance. There was an impulsiveness that, perhaps contrary to conventional thought, gave it realness...yet also a surreal feeling. It was very much it's own film yet gave nods to films like Bergman's "Persona", Altman's "3 Women", and Casavettes' "A Women Under the Influence". However this film only skirted the sureal, with some role reversals, and was firmly about healing. The focus was on Brooke Adams' character, and her arrival and departure bookended the film. Nevertheless, there were numerous other characters who needed to move on and heal. It was a type of healing that requires knowing yourself, others, and your role with them and the world.

Mary Jo or Jo for short, played by Brooke Adams, stops by her hometown in Rhode Island to see her ailing adoptive mother who is checking in the hospital and her other sister, Franny, who was also adopted, before heading to Seattle for her new job.

We see that her adoptive mother is cold (freezing is more like it), and shows no sign of emotion toward Jo when Jo tries to open up and be vulnerable with her. The mother's expressionless face and total indifference speaks volumes of what Jo's childhood must have been like. For example, Jo was called a devil when she was a child and was forced to hide in a room when she began showing her pregnancy as a teen. And Jo even married a guy just to please this woman who adopted her and still controls Jo's life to this day as a grown woman, as she tells Franny. We learn that Jo was treated poorly by her mother while Franny was not.

Soon thereafter, her abusive husband, Steve, whom she is in the process of splitting from, pays her an unexpected visit and the pandemonium ensues when he cannot get his way or have his way with her. Not wanting her sister, Franny, to know what is going on, she stays at the neighbor's house where Tom, Donna, and their daughter Jackie live. Jackie, Ari Meyers, the daughter of Tom and Donna, quickly befriends Jo and , soon enough, Jo gets embroiled in the family's quagmires which can only be all- too- familiar to Jo's own dysfunctional childhood and current life which is one of the reasons why she sticks around.

Jo mainly sticks around to protect Jackie from her psychotic bipolar mother, Donna, played by Trisha Van Devere who, by the way, plays the role to perfection. Playing the complete antithesis to Donna is husband Tom, played by Jon Devries, who could not be more stoic and unaffected by all the chaos going on. Needless to say, Tom and Donna are going through a divorce, much like Jo herself, and Jo is caught between playing protective mother to Jackie, sister to Donna, and a quasi-lover to Tom.

Jo's continuous requests for extensions and postponements to go out to her new job in Seattle not only indicate her need to protect Jackie until Tom and Jackie movie to Pittsburgh and/or Donna commits herself, but is more emblematic of Jo feeling at home and being comfortable by paradoxically being uncomfortable in this maelstrom of chaotic emotions that are too close to home (no pun intended) and resonate deeply inside her.

Director, Michael Roemer, brilliantly uses symbolism throughout the movie. The books that Jo reads throughout the movie," Haywire "(1977), indicates that she is deeply drawn to chaotic and highly dysfunctional families who suffer from mental illness from every aspect. And the other book Jo is seen reading, "Tess of the d'Urbervilles: A pure woman faithfully presented" is a story much like Jo's own life and childhood about a 16-year old girl.

Jo probably dropped Mary from her name because Jo, unlike the Virgin Mary, had lost her purity long ago when she got pregnant and therefore she is no longer a virgin, although still has a certain innocence about her.

Furthermore, Jo's childlike, irreverent behavior (reclining back in the church pews with her elbows slouching over, as she is starring and smiling at the ceiling instead of kneeling and praying and then suddenly sitting up properly when her mother and family get up and turn around to walk out of the church) indicate her childlike innocence and naivete not to mention her incessant and deep fear of her mother, despite her old age and ailments.

Roemer uses religious symbolism throughout the movie (churches, religious pictures, religious services, praying, Donna's references to God, etc.) to show the character's inner struggle between between doing the moral thing versus otherwise and the ironies that ensue due to conflicting feelings about morals and our human nature which do not always coincide. For example, we see that the adoptive mother of Jo is very religious, as she has pictures and statues of Jesus everywhere and goes to church constantly. Yet, somehow, this woman called her daughter the devil when she was a child, seems totally indifferent to Jo's feelings, seems unforgiving and treats her poorly. On the other hand, Jo, who has little knowledge or interest in being holy seems to uphold altruistic and endearing values such as protecting Jackie, trying to help Donna, and attempts to keep peace with others throughout the movie. She also attempts to forgive her mother who gave her up for adoption by writing to her twice to see her and even attempted to see her in person to make amends but nothing came of it.

As the movie progresses, more similarities seem to emerge between Donna and Jo-mainly their dysfunctional upbringings that give them a feeling of understanding and sisterhood. Notwithstanding such similarities, Jo will not let Donna get anywhere near Jackie for fear of hurting her, much like Jo was deeply hurt by her adoptive mother (even her biological mother as well).

Brooke Adams's extremely poignant, raw, and real emotions really surface in this movie, especially during scenes where she feels the need to protect Jackie from Donna and/or when she felt something happened to Jackie. Such scenes between Jo and Donna are very real and although no physical punches were thrown nor catfights erupted, it got as close as it can get with the raised voices, red faces, and in-your-face moments.

All the actors play their role to the hilt. Tom played the dull and drab husband perfectly to juxtapose his wife's character and let Donna's brilliant insanity shine. Jackie played her role brilliantly as well for a child, especially how she loved her mother, despite the mom's behavior and was wise beyond her years. In fact, Jackie was the mother of Donna in a sense, as in the beginning we see Jackie telling Donna not to disappear again and that it worries Jackie and then Donna tells Jackie that it will not happen again.

And as far as Brooke Adams is concerned, she is just a stunning beauty-inside and out. She has the perfect blend of that girlish charm, sex appeal, and a certain melancholy that invites you to get closer and want to know her.

I am so used to seeing Adams in horror films and a few offbeat comedies in the 80s, so this is a side of her personality and acting we never see before.

Every scene with her was very believable; in fact, it seemed visceral.

My favorite scenes in the movie, besides her battles with Donna, was when she was trying to tell her adoptive mom how she felt in the hospital and was crying but the mom did not want to talk to Jo. You can just see the tears in Jo's face and how real her emotion was. The other scene was when she visited her biological mother, who gave Jo away, at the clothing store. Jo wanted so bad for her biological mother to say she was sorry for giving up Jo and hug her and tell her she loved her, etc. You see that that is what Jo wanted from her brokenhearted expression and she got no response from her biological mom at all-much like her adoptive mother. And then when she walks out of the store and the woman tells Jo that she forgot her change and Jo turns around and just looks at her like a little girl whose mother just told her she did not love her. Not to mention she had written her biological mother twice with no response. That topped with the same coldness and indifference from not only her biological mother but adoptive mother made her feel worthless; hence, her need to hang out with the dysfunctional neighbors for even dysfunction feels better than abandonment in most cases.

I felt Adams's performance was so noteworthy that she should have truly won some type of an award for this and maybe she still can. If the movie was made into a motion picture and theatrical release back in 1984, it probably could have.

I wish Roemer would have spent more time with the specifics/backstory of what else happened in Jo's past with her adoptive mother and even her biological mother and father-no mention of the Jo's dad at all nor an attempt to look for him to shed light on things.

Roemer proves that he is a genius at directing.

As far as the message, I image Roemer was telling the viewer that the way we are treated as a child greatly impacts us and our lives in ways we will never know and the types of people we gravitate towards. For in many cases, like Jo's character, abuse and drama can feel great compared to feeling alone and worthless. At least drama and abuse can make us feel alive versus abandonment. Another lesson is perhaps we often become our parents or repeat their mistakes. For example, Jo's mother gave her up for adoption and Jo's baby was taken from her at 16 when she had her baby, even though it was not her choice, it was taken from her while asleep.

But the point is, we have the power of decision to not be the victims of circumstances or our environment. Perhaps Jo desperately wanted that child that was taken from her while she was asleep at 16 in the hospital and was living as a mother vicariously through Donna and wanted to take care of Jackie the best she could. After all, she told Tom the reason she wanted to spend time with Jackie was because she never knew her daughter. So perhaps the lesson is treat others as you want to be treated and if you were treated badly in your childhood or in general then do not do so to others but the opposite, especially if you are conscious that you parents or guardians were wrong.

Roemer uses religious symbolism throughout the movie (churches, religious pictures, praying, etc.) to remind us that we are all God's children (like Donna tells Jo at the end) and through him, all is forgiven and there are no justified resentments despite what was done to us or not done. At least that is the way I interpret it, and I believe the movie's ending will yield the same message.