Blackbird

In something of a reprise of her role in 1990s weepie Stepmom, Susan Sarandon plays another matriarch with a terminal illness whose days are tragically numbered. She stars as Lily, who is suffering with motor neurone disease and has decided to end her life, with the help of her understanding husband (Sam Neill). That decision prompts her family - daughters Kate Winslet and Mia Wasikowska, their partners Rainn Wilson and Bex Taylor-Klaus, plus grandson Anson Boon - to gather for a final weekend together. But the high-pressure environment sees each dealing with the situation in their own increasingly fraught ways. A remake of the Danish film Silent Heart, this is a sensitively handled if somewhat muted "issues" drama that benefits hugely from its A-list cast. They effortlessly punch up the rather obvious material, which shies away from any serious commentary on euthanasia and fails to flesh out its characters in any meaningful way. While Sarandon's dignified performance just about carries Blackbird over its melodramatic peaks and troughs, the film itself can feel hollow - it wants your tears but it does little to earn them.