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:
“Christianity was only a very strong and singularly well-timed Salvation Army movement that happened to receive help from an unusual and highly dramatic incident. It was a Puritan reaction in an age when, no doubt, a Puritan reaction was much wanted; but like all sudden violent reactions, it soon wanted reacting against.”
—Samuel Butler (1835–1902)
“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)
“Sole and self-commanded works,
Fears not undermining days,
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And, by the famous might that lurks
In reaction and recoil,
Makes flames to freeze, and ice to boil.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)