Film

Mermaids

A warm, funny family comedy about a restless mother and her two daughters learning to find stability and accept each other in a small Massachusetts town. Cher's Rachel is beautifully drawn—chaotic but genuinely loving, never punished for her appetite for life. It's a film that loves women and understands that mothers, daughters, and sisters can drive you mad and break your heart while staying completely essential to who you become.

TMDb rating3.4

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you like comedy-drama about a difficult, lovable mother seen through the eyes of a teenager who is sharp, awkward and sure she knows better, with a wistful, unhurried tone.

Skip it if you need a brisk plot, since it drifts through small-town routines and moods, favouring atmosphere over any firm dramatic spine.

What it asks of you: Settle in for a little under two hours, with an easy, meandering pace and a tonal shift between broad comedy and quieter, more tender scenes.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

Postcards from the Edge1990

Meryl Streep and Shirley MacLaine navigate mother-daughter turbulence with the same warmth and sharp humour. A film about women who exasperate and adore each other in equal measure, anchored by performances that feel lived-in and true.

But The emotional stakes can feel uneven; some scenes punch harder than others, and the tonal shifts take adjustment.

Postcards from the Edge poster

Terms of Endearment1983

Shirley MacLaine and Debra Winger in a multi-generational story where comedy and real pain coexist without cancelling each other out. It understands family love as both ridiculous and profound in the same breath.

But Considerably darker in its third act; the film earns its emotion but doesn't let you off easy.

Terms of Endearment poster

Stepmom1998

Susan Sarandon and Julia Roberts as women who have to find tenderness for each other across genuine conflict. It's about blended families learning to accept people as they are, messy and impossible and necessary.

But The melodramatic foundation is visible; if sentimentality makes you uncomfortable, this will test you.

Stepmom poster

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Mermaids

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Moonlight2016

Both see maternal love and failure not as opposites but as the same story.

Utterly different in register—quiet, meditative, formally inventive—but shares Mermaids' deep understanding that mothers love their children even when they fail them catastrophically, and that this failure doesn't erase the love. Both films trust you to hold contradictions.

But Spare, poetic, demanding silence from you; nothing is explained or resolved in the way mainstream cinema teaches you to expect.

Moonlight poster
More like this (8)

Now and Then1995

Female friendship across time, with a huge ensemble cast having visible fun. Rosie O'Donnell and Thora Birch anchor a film that's interested in how girls become women and what they owe each other.

But Episodic and meandering; it's more interested in texture than momentum, which some find scattered.

Now and Then poster

Beaches1988

Bette Midler and Barbara Hershey in a story about friendship that demands everything. Like Mermaids, it refuses to make women small or safe, even when they're being difficult.

But Melodramatic to the point of self-parody; it's not subtle, and it knows it.

Beaches poster

Fried Green Tomatoes1991

Kathy Bates and Jessica Tandy in parallel stories about women finding themselves. Warm, funny, rooted in genuine tenderness and a refusal to accept the ordinary boundaries of women's lives.

But The framing device can feel simplistic compared to the richer story it contains.

Fried Green Tomatoes poster

Steel Magnolias1989

An ensemble of women supporting and needling each other through grief, joy, and everyday chaos. It's about community and how women hold each other up without ever being serious about it.

But Ensemble pieces can mean some characters don't get room to breathe; the sentiment is thick.

Steel Magnolias poster

Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood2002

Sandra Bullock and Ellen Burstyn exploring mother-daughter estrangement across time. It asks hard questions about forgiveness and why mothers and daughters hurt each other.

But Southern Gothic melodrama isn't everyone's language; it can feel overwrought if you're not in the mood.

Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood poster

The Parent Trap1998

Two sisters separated at birth learning to accept that their divorced parents are imperfect, flawed people they nonetheless love. It's lighter than Mermaids but asks similar questions about family and belonging.

But Unapologetically a crowd-pleaser; if you prefer your family dramas less tidy, this may feel too neat.

The Parent Trap poster

Eighth Grade2018

Both films center female adolescence without sentimentalizing it or making it cute.

Bo Burnham's examination of a girl becoming herself, surrounded by adults who love her imperfectly. Like Mermaids, it's interested in how young women navigate desire, belonging, and the gap between who they are and who they're told to be—but from the daughter's perspective entirely.

But Uncomfortable in its accuracy; if you remember being thirteen and it was awful, this will feel like remembering.

Eighth Grade poster

Mildred Pierce2011

Both examine the destructive codependency between mother and daughter with unflinching affection.

Kate Winslet and Guy Pearce in Todd Haynes's five-hour miniseries about a woman who gives everything to her daughter and gets cruelty in return. It's far more ruthless than Mermaids, but asks the same question: what do women owe their children, and what do they owe themselves?

But Bleak in ways Mermaids never is; it's a masterpiece about disappointed hope, not reconciled love.

Mildred Pierce poster

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