The Weekend

There's no future in holding on to the past. British writer-director Brian Skeet`s screen adaptation of Peter Cameron`s novel features Gena Rowlands and Brooke Shields leading a stellar ensemble cast. Marian (Deborah Kara Unger) and John Kerr (Jared Harris) are expecting an old friend, Lyle (David Conrad) for a weekend visit to their beautiful upstate New York home. Emotions run high since it is the one-year anniversary of the death of John`s brother, the handsome and charismatic Tony (D.B. Sweeney), who had also been Lyle`s lover. Marian, who is still inconsolable after losing Tony to AIDS, is upset when Lyle brings his new boyfriend, a young artist, Robert (James Duval). Meanwhile, the situation is just as tense at the Kerr`s neighbors` house, where oft-widowed, free spirit Laura Ponti (Gena Rowlands) gets a surprise visit from her resentful, angry daughter, Nina (Brooke Shields), and her married lover, Thierry (Gary Dourdan). Matters worsen when the battling mother-daughter duo joins the Kerr household for a dinner party, where the pain-riddled diners engage in a messy emotional showdown.