Stella

Based on 1937’s Stella Dallas, Stella follows Bette Midler’s title character as she’s forced to contend with single parenthood after the baby’s father (Stephen Collins’ Stephen) moves on – with the movie detailing the rocky relationship that eventually ensues between Stella and her daughter Jenny (played, as an older teenager, by Trini Alvarado). Midler’s scenery-chewing turn as the brassy central character remains virtually the only worthwhile element within Stella‘s overlong running time, as the movie suffers from a fairly stale narrative that’s compounded by an absence of compelling supporting figures and an often unreasonably deliberate pace. (It’s difficult, in terms of the former, not to get a kick out of Ben Stiller’s turn as Jenny’s punk boyfriend, admittedly.) Scripter Robert Getchell’s decision to employ an aggressively episodic narrative compounds the movie’s interminable vibe, to be sure, and there’s little doubt that Stella is rife with sequences and interludes that are either hackneyed beyond belief or hopelessly padded-out. It is, as such, not surprising to note that the film’s sense of momentum is almost non-existent, which, in turn, ensures that the emotional revelations of Stella‘s final stretch simply aren’t able to make the emotional impact one might’ve expected. And while the love/hate relationship between Midler and Alvarado’s respective characters feels authentic, Stella is, in the end, foiled by a host of negative attributes that conspire to cement the movie’s place as a seriously dull little drama.

*1/2 out of ****