Now and Then

Filipe Manuel Neto

**A film with some charm and lack of originality, but which works well as a family film, and which deserves to be brought back from oblivion.** This production from the 90s, currently somewhat forgotten, is another film without any bones that we can watch with our grandmothers and our children by our side, and which deserves to be revisited and cherished. I can understand why it fell into the deepest forgotten films: it's not a remarkable production, it's not one of those films that leaves a mark on us for life. However, it does its job impeccably. The story is quite nice, even if it has nothing original: four friends meet again many years after having separated to pursue their lives, and the bond of friendship that has united them since childhood is reinforced by the reunion, full of nostalgia and good memories. There are lots of films about situations like this, and with similar themes, this is not new, but it is well done. The film has four good adult actresses (Demi Moore, Rita Wilson, Rosie O'Donnell and Melanie Griffith) and four promising ones (Christina Ricci, Thora Birch, Gaby Hoffmann and Ashleigh Aston Moore), since the four main characters are played today and at puberty, twenty years earlier. This is very interesting, but the truth is that there are not even similarities between the young actresses and their adult counterparts: the most blatant case is the character Roberta, where I really don't see any physiognomic similarity between Ricci and O'Donnell. Of course, people change… but not radically. If we forget this uncomfortable detail, the work of the eight protagonists is quite good, and each one has time and opportunities to show what they are worth. On a technical level, the film is strictly nothing special. The recreation of the 1970s fails because it is not very evident, that is, there are no elements, in the sets or props on stage, that help us understand the era in which the action takes place. The setting has a certain charm and good taste (I especially liked the gas lamps), and the tree house is very beautiful, as are the filming locations and cinematography. But that's it.