Reaction
The film received a mixed response from critics, and currently holds a 64% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Roger Ebert awarded it an average two stars (out of a possible four) and said in his print review: "Watch "Serial Mom" closely and you'll realize that something is miscalculated at a fundamental level. Turner's character is helpless and unwitting in a way that makes us feel almost sorry for her - and that undermines the humor. She isn't funny crazy, she's sick crazy." However other critics lauded the film and Turner's performance; "Turner has never been so over the top hilarious!" said the reviewer from Cosmopolitan magazine; Scene magazine called the film "Hysterically funny!".
Critics lauded Waters' style and savage satire of America's obsession with true crime, such as when Beverly Sutphin's daughter, Misty, is seen selling T-shirts outside the courthouse where her mother's fate will be decided. The film was a moderate success, however the $13 million dollar movie earned only slightly more than half its budget, grossing around $7.8 million in domestic box office sales. The film has become something of a cult classic since its release.
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Famous quotes containing the word reaction:
“Sole and self-commanded works,
Fears not undermining days,
Grows by decays,
And, by the famous might that lurks
In reaction and recoil,
Makes flames to freeze, and ice to boil.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“In a land which is fully settled, most men must accept their local environment or try to change it by political means; only the exceptionally gifted or adventurous can leave to seek his fortune elsewhere. In America, on the other hand, to move on and make a fresh start somewhere else is still the normal reaction to dissatisfaction and failure.”
—W.H. (Wystan Hugh)
“More and more, when faced with the world of men, the only reaction is one of individualism. Man alone is an end unto himself. Everything one tries to do for the common good ends in failure.”
—Albert Camus (1913–1960)