Jane, longing to look younger and thinner, decides to get liposuction, which results in a lengthy hospital stay after she develops complications following the procedure.

After a revealing photo shoot, she begins to question her sex appeal, especially as she is up for an audition in another film alongside heartthrob Kevin McCabe.

She also spends her time with her Black Big Sister volunteer Lorraine, who Jane hopes will put the young girl in touch with her heritage.

The women drive to meet with a fully recovered Jane, who is last seen showing pictures of her daughters to the only nurse who helped her during her hospital stay.

Ms. Holofcener's sharp, witty dialogue shows an ear acutely tuned to the edgy, competitive nuances of contemporary banter, and the movie expertly evokes the rivalry percolating just below the surface of the Markses' relationships.

"[4] Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times observed, "Here is a movie that knows its women, listens to them, doesn't give them a pass, allows them to be real: It's a rebuke to the shallow Ya-Ya Sisterhood.

"[5] In Variety, Todd McCarthy said, "Engaging, intermittently insightful but too glib to wring full value out of its subject matter, this brightly performed study of an extended family of females has enough going for it to quickly graduate from the fest circuit to a respectable career in specialized release .

[it] evinces keen antenna for (mostly) female foibles, a good ear for dialogue, talent for directing thesps and a clean, unfussy visual style.

"[6] Mick LaSalle of the San Francisco Chronicle said, "Nicole Holofcener throws a bunch of issues on the table and takes time to linger over them, without worrying much about where her story's going or even if she has one.

"[7] In Rolling Stone, Peter Travers opined, "In this painfully funny and touching look at the vanities and insecurities that a mother can pass on to her daughters in the name of love, writer-director Nicole Holofcener does a chick flick right .

it's so accurate about how people attempt meaningful emotional connections in an uncaring world of self-involvement, obtuseness and free-floating insecurity that it ought to be put in a time capsule.