"Unhook the Stars": Nick Cassavetes

U.S.A.

Sunday, 6 p.m.

Sensitive exploratory performances by Gena Rowlands, Marisa Tomei, and Gerard Depardieu in a "coming of age" script directed and co-written by Nick Cassavetes are an entertaining delight. The unique element is that without sentimentality or excess we experience the maturing of a woman in her late 50s whose children have finally left the coop.

Mildred (Gena Rowlands), whose son is married, whose daughter lives with her in a contentious relationship, is called upon by her battered neighbor, Monica (Marisa Tomei), to help care for her young son (Jake Lloyd).

In these roles both women reveal spirited and engaging personalities; Rowlands' benign, imaginative, and intelligent mother begins to blossom again with the care of taking duties - ball playing, storytelling, or teaching. Marisa Tomei reveals a tenacious woman whose mercurial behavior and vulgar mouth belie her instinctive intelligence and pragmatic optimism.

Each serves the other, with Monica reintroducing the widowed Mildred to the world of available men. All the performances, including that of the child actor, are believable and affecting without a moment of touchy-feely or cloying-clawing tension. Though overlong, neither the extended storyline nor an erratic and at times awkward score can seriously detract or spoil the strength of the theme, the joyful controlled performances, the talented direction, editing, and cinematography.