Quartile rating: 7/10 · 1 rating
Fifteen-year-old Charlotte Flax is tired of her wacky mom moving their family to a different town any time she feels it is necessary. When they move to a small Massachusetts town and Mrs. Flax begins dating a shopkeeper, Charlotte and her 9-year-old sister, Kate, hope that they can finally settle down. But when Charlotte's attraction to an older man gets in the way, the family must learn to accept each other for who they truly are.
Mermaids is carried primarily by its performances — Cher, Winona Ryder, and a young Christina Ricci all deliver memorable, lived-in work that elevates the material considerably. The plot is a fairly familiar coming-of-age/eccentric-mother story set against the early 1960s backdrop, competent but not especially distinctive. Cinematography is functional and period-appropriate without being visually inventive. Novelty is modest — the film has a specific, quirky voice and the JFK-era setting gives it flavor, but it doesn't stray far from the dysfunctional-family-comedy-drama template. The ending resolves satisfactorily if somewhat tidily, earning a middling score.