Genny has been a widow for two years; her daughter, Caroline Brooke Theiss , hasn't spoken since her father's death.
The screen comes alive when the sisters' mother -- wonderfully played as a Gloria Vanderbilt knockoff by Marian Seldes -- shows up with her own off-kilter view of life.
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In the opening scene we learn -- but Denise doesn't -- that her husband, lost four years ago while climbing Everest, has been preserved in ice and is thawing out.