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The dramatic potential of female siblings has fascinated playwrights and film makers for generations.
In recent years we've seen "Hannah and Her Sisters", "Playing by Heart", and "Happiness". Now we have "Before You Go", in which three sisters reunite to bury their mother, settle old scores, and bond as only girls can.
Based on Shelagh Stephenson's play "The Memory of Water", Lewis Gilbert's film is a mixed bag of comedy, weepie, and supernatural melodrama.
The first genre involves youngest daughter Catherine (Hamilton), a hippified hypochondriac forever pining for her two-timing boyfriend.
The second derives from Teresa (Walters), the oldest sister whose tireless devotion to her mother has put an intolerable strain on her long-suffering husband (Wilkinson).
The third, least likely, element centres on Mary (Whalley), the middle sis whose return to her childhood home is punctuated by ghostly visitations from the deceased (Hodge).
With so much going on, it's perhaps not surprising that the guys are sidelined, with John Hannah particularly ill-served as Mary's married lover.
Where "Before You Go" really falters is in its clumsy attempts to 'open out' the play by propelling the action out of the house at every conceivable opportunity.
Clearly Gilbert hoped to make this essentially theatrical potboiler cinematic. But after the umpteenth shot of sandy beach or dramatic cliff-top, you wonder if he wasn't under orders to include as much Isle of Man scenery as possible - especially as its Film Commission invested heavily in the production.
