Insightful, moving performances make ONCE AROUND, Lasse Hallstrom's family comedy-drama, a unique and memorable film. The Bella family is a close as any--maybe too close. Sisters Jan (Laura San Giacomo) and Renata (Holly Hunter) are together on the day of Jan's wedding. Jan is marrying her... [More]

Insightful, moving performances make ONCE AROUND, Lasse Hallstrom's family comedy-drama, a unique and memorable film. The Bella family is a close as any--maybe too close. Sisters Jan (Laura San Giacomo) and Renata (Holly Hunter) are together on the day of Jan's wedding. Jan is marrying her dream man (Tim Guinee), yet still carrying on an affair with another man (Jim Redstone), while Renata has just faced the reality that her live-in boyfriend (Griffin Dunne) will never marry her. Renata soon finds herself living at home again, and regressing easily into the role of the failed but beloved daughter to smart, beautiful Marilyn (Gena Rowlands) and fair-minded Joe (Danny Aiello). Vowing to pull her life together, she takes a new job selling condo timeshares on the island of St. Thomas. There, she meets arrogant, gregarious, and overconfident Sam Sharpe (Richard Dreyfuss), a super salesman from a Lithuanian family, who is as madly in love with her as she is with him. It is this dedicated, loving, and eccentric relationship that, ironically, begins to pull the close-knit Bellas apart. What lies ahead for all is a complex patchwork of familial disharmony, undying loyalty, cultural tradition, tragedy, and triumph. The interplay between family members, their closeness and resentments, permeate an unusual story with characters that are each unique and unforgettable. [Less]