A shaggy dog tale about an eccentric Southern family whose skeletons come tumbling --
slowly -- out of the closet after elderly Jewel Mae "Cookie" Orcutt (Patricia Neal) commits suicide. Robert Altman returns to the site of his atypical
GINGERBRED MAN in this amiable but rather trying bit of fluff, whose tone veers disconcertingly between light comedy and high gothic melodrama. A pipe-smoking widow whose indifference to matters of propriety and social standing are a perpetual trial to her pretentious niece Camille (Glenn Close),
Cookie's closest companion is Willis (Charles Dutton), a sweet-natured drunk who helps out around the house. Her favorite relative ...
Released:
1999
Rated:
PG-13
Length:
118 mins