This movie features the remarkable acting of Ellen Burstyn as Hagar Shipley, whose life is chronicled here in a series of flashbacks with Samantha Weinstein and Christine Horne as her younger self. As a 90-year-old, Hagar is ailing and losing her memory and her son Mervyn wants to place her in a retirement home. This brings out all the bitterness and regret that she has kept inside and we see scenes from the past that tell us the story of a rebellious young woman, loving mother and the victim of a broken marriage. The movie is a realistic portrait of one woman's life with all its heartbreaks, dashed hopes, loves, and loyalties. Hagar looks back on a life she lived on her own terms. Brought up as the daughter of well-to-do merchant in a small Canadian Prairie town, she rejects her father's wealth and marries the guy she falls madly in love with, against her father's wishes. The marriage between two unconventional young people, who enjoyed great sex and fun, eventually lost its lustre. Hagar's husband was marked by alcohol and an out of control ego that eventually took its toll on both of them. Certainly Hagar knew her own failings contributed to the downfall of the marriage. She re-lived these failings in an encounter with a young woman, well performed by Ellen Page, who exhibits the same weaknesses as she had. The movie is based on a Canadian book by the same name written in 1964. I read the book many years ago in a Canadian literature course but I can see how this movie has much in common with another movie, "Rachel, Rachel", based on A Jest of God, also by Canadian author Margaret Laurence. Margaret Laurence was a great writer whose gift was to write realistically about women who run up against the unwritten rules of mid-20th century life and the harsh consequences that result, especially in small towns. I found this movie was a brilliant tribute to Margaret Laurence and great viewing pleasure.

This movie is about basically human relations, and the interaction between them. The main character is an old lady who at the twilight of her life starts a journey to her past, doing an analysis of how she lived her life. This journey is precipitated because of the sons economic crisis and his intentions to put her in a nursing home. It is a very honest look to some issues that we all ask ourselves at some point in life, and there is plenty of secondary ideas to discuss in this movie such as family legacy, real love, marriage or destiny. although this type of movie melodramas are nothing new, this one can be useful to watch it with family members to discuss some ideas. There is a good performance by the actors and the characters are very believable, but because of the time some characters are maybe not fully developed. I really recommend this movie for a quiet Saturday afternoon.

I saw this movie last night after waiting ages and ages for it to be released here in Canada (still only in limited release). It was worth the wait and then some. I am a very avid reader of Margaret Laurence and was excited to see that this novel was being turned into a film. I actually ended up liking the movie better than the novel. I liked that the character of Bram Shipley was a bit less harsh, and that there seemed to be more of a love story between Hagar and Bram, which made the scenes at the end of Bram's life that much more moving. The loss seemed stronger. Hagar was not any more likable on film than in the book, but Ellen Burstyn was a genius in this role. She WAS Hagar through and through. Christine Horne was brilliant and has many more great things ahead I am sure. Her scenes with Cole Hauser were electrifying. I could go on and on, overall a 9 * out of 10. Fantastic and can't wait for it to come out on DVD, a must own for my collection!

I saw the movie recently and really liked it. I surprised myself and cried. This movie is in the same niche genre as "Away from Her" - or even "The Bucket List" but handles the whole aging theme with incredible authenticity. It's really really tough to have the main character as unlikable as Hagar. The director does a masterful job with the challenge. Hagar's hard to understand. Her world has hard edges and she isn't a warm endearing woman at all.The first scene gets this across without any compromise. Hagar (Ellen Burnstyn) is being taken to a nursing home by her son and daughter-in-law. She figures it out en-route and freaks out. Her edges are really hard. She is mean. She is belittling and selfish. She is a stone. I didn't like her - not even a little bit.Throughout the course of the movie, we get insight. We find out why she doesn't like petunias, why she favors one son over the other, how her losses have formed her character... I started to see the angel... and I started to like her. I especially liked her when she poured out her secrets to the boy in the shack. Ellen Burnstyn, you are a brilliant actor. Kudos. Kudos. Kudos. What a scene!This isn't a "feel good" movie, but it is certainly a movie that brings the viewer to empathy. I understand more clearly that hard edges in a person's life are there to protect, they are there for a reason...Hagar isn't my mother - she isn't even my mother-in-law or neighbor... but parts of her are present in many women (and men) in my life. Those parts somehow make more sense to me now that I've watched The Stone Angel.