Gena Rowlands

[6] Holly Hunter stars as the youngest daughter in a tight-knit Boston family that’s eager to see her married. But when she finally brings a man home to meet them, he’s not quite who they expected. Richard Dreyfuss plays the boyfriend, a wealthy salesman who seems to mean well, even if he often rubs people the wrong way with his crass humor and over-eagerness to …

[6] Screenwriter Callie Khouri’s much anticipated follow-up to her Oscar-winning script for Thelma & Louise is a more conventional romantic comedy, but not one without bite. Julia Roberts stars as Grace, a busy wife and mother who discovers her husband (Dennis Quaid) is cheating on her. Her family encourages her to keep it a secret and deal with it privately, but that’s just not Grace’s …

[8] Indie maverick John Cassavetes examines a family under the stress of mental illness in A Woman Under the Influence. Cassavetes regulars Peter Falk and Gena Rowlands (his real-life wife) star as the parents of three children whose family is put to the test when Falk has Rowlands institutionalized for insanity. After six months of therapy and shock treatment, the matriarch returns — but will …

[7] Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams star as young lovers from different social backgrounds whose relationship is torn apart by interfering parents and World War II. When they reunite many years later, she’s engaged to another (James Marsden), but their feelings for one another remain. The Notebook, based on the book by Nicholas Sparks, essentially boils down to, “Which boy will she choose?” But it …