'Night, Mother

Deceptively complex, this adaptation of the 1983 Pulitzer Prize winner hews closely to the grim line of the stage play and seldom compromises. It's early evening in a small house in the Midwest. Jessie Cates (Sissy Spacek), a woman in her late 30s, is going about what seems to be a normal routine, as though she is about to take a trip. She cleans the refrigerator, cancels the newspaper delivery, packs and labels her clothes for the Salvation Army, and does a few other chores. After 10 minutes or so have elapsed, she tells her mother (Anne Bancroft) that she is going to kill herself later that evening. Jessie is an epileptic; she has an ex-husband and a son who is o...