[6]

After her daughter dies in a car accident, a mother spends a month with the deceased woman’s friends to try and learn more about her in this talkative made-for-TV drama. Diane Keaton stars as the mother, whose abrasive presence isn’t at first welcomed by the friends. Tom Everett Scott plays the daughter’s gay best friend (soul mate, really), Josh Hopkins plays the husband and father with whom the daughter had an affair, and Alexa Davalos plays Hopkins’ wife and the daughter’s college friend. Chris Pine also shows up as Scott’s boyfriend. Surrender, Dorothy opens with the tragedy, so it’s easy to imagine a Lifetime Movie of the Week that’s hellbent on finagling tears, but it actually offers a wee bit more than that. All the characters have secrets about their relationship with the daughter, and some of the secrets are hard for them to deal with, particularly when they reveal who the daughter was most comfortable confiding in. Unsurprisingly, the movie is about forgiveness and moving on, but it’s also about respecting privacy and the demystification of the dearly departed. It’s weird how the characters fetishize the deceased daughter’s belongings and clothing, and Keaton’s grief manifests itself in a few off-kilter ways, but if you need a Lifetime Movie to let out some cathartic tears, this one might do the trick.