Your Roots Are Showing

August 25, 2008
Chidley's overlong snoozer chronicles a woman's make over when her husband leaves her. After a particularly difficult day, Lizzie Buckley fires off a scathing e-mail to her sister detailing her many petty resentments of her husband, James. Unfortunately, the missive instead goes to James, who quickly announces he's leaving her. Before long, Lizzie and her twin toddlers move to the town where her best friend lives, and Lizzie realizes that she may have been depressed for a long time and lacked self-awareness in her marriage. Meanwhile, James wants a divorce and seems to have taken up with his assistant, yet Lizzie hopes to win James back. Genre standards abound: there's the ruggedly handsome possible rebound fling for Lizzie, the wacky therapist, the nasty mother-in-law and the “it was all a big misunderstanding” air-clearing. It's heavily traveled territory, and Chidley doesn't do much to distinguish herself.