I found this a difficult movie to give a rating to, and can understand why other reviewers had such widely differing opinions.

It is very much a family drama, with some light hearted moments. It is also one of the longest cigarette ads that I have seen.

There are basically three plotlines - the father trying to hold the family together while chaos and unhappiness reigns around him, the adulterous mother, and the flirtatious daughter. Throw in some digs at Catholic traditions and their views of morality, and you have a strange mix indeed.

The film is a bit slow and confused at first, the result I think of trying to manage the three plot lines (and the two subplots). Once you get used to the idea of the three stories it makes more sense.

One thematic issue explored is how different races look down on each other - the policeman looks down on the Polish family, while the Mother calls anyone she doesn't like a 'gypsy', with scorn in her voice. She applies this label to her daughter-in-law on a frequent basis.

The film offers the idea that having to get married because you are in 'the family way' is a genetically inherited trait, affecting both boys and girls without favour.

There is plenty of implied sex, but no nudity or any actual sex is shown - I guess the producers were aiming for a teenage audience.

Ms Danes seems to have developed some puppy fat in the wrong place. Her beau on the other hand is lean and mean, and kinda reminds me of both Tom Cruise and Mark Harmon (yeah, the producers want the teen audience...).

There are some bits of humour, and also some bits of sillyness which don't quite work.

The climax will no doubt be seen as sacrilegious by some, and may account for the negative additude of some reviewers, as it ridicules some aspects of Catholic faith.