Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood (Full Screen) Reviews

Grab your tissues and send the guys away, because Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood is the most pedigreed chick flick since Steel Magnolias . You can tell by the title and the novelish names of the Louisiana ladies from Rebecca Wells's precious bestseller. First there's Sidda (Sandra Bullock), a successful playwright still wrestling with her manipulative mother, Vivi (Ellen Burstyn), after a traumatic upbringing. Then there's longtime friends Teensy (Fionnula Flanagan), Necie (Shirley Knight), and Caro (scene-stealer Maggie Smith), from Vivi's secret club of "Ya-Ya Priestesses," together since childhood and determined to heal the rift between Sidda and her mom. Through an ambitious flashback structure (including Ashley Judd as the younger Vivi), screenwriter and first-time director Callie Khouri (who wrote Thelma & Louise ) establishes a rich context for this mother-daughter reunion. There's plenty of humor to temper the drama, which inspires Bullock's best work in years. Definitely worth a look for the curious, but only fans of Wells's fiction will feel any twinge of loyalty. --Jeff Shannon