Based on Patty Dann's 1986 novel of the same name, and set in the early 1960s, its plot follows a neurotic teenage girl who moves with her wayward mother and young sister to a small town in Massachusetts.
After ending an affair with her married employer, Rachel and her daughters move to the small town of Eastport, Massachusetts where she also gets a job as a receptionist for a lawyer.
Charlotte is ecstatic about their new home's location, as it borders a convent, as she is obsessed with Catholicism, to the annoyance of her irreligious Jewish mother.
Uneducated about sex, Charlotte fears that God will punish her with pregnancy via Immaculate Conception, and decides to steal her mother's car and run away.
Over the following year, Rachel and Lou continue their relationship, while Joe relocates to California to open a plant nursery; he and Charlotte keep in contact via postcards.
At school, she has gained a new reputation due to her sexual encounter with Joe, and replaces her Catholicism obsession with Greek mythology.
The film ends with Rachel, Charlotte, and Kate playfully dancing as they set the dinner table for a family meal, something they had not done in the past.
[1] They subsequently hired Frank Oz as a replacement, but he also abandoned the project after clashing with actresses Cher and Winona Ryder.
[1] Lloyd sued Orion Pictures Corporation and Mermaid Productions for breach of contract and received US$175,000 in damages, reaching a settlement on the second day of the trial, 30 July 1991.
In a rural area near North Easton, Massachusetts, the production crew built a 60-foot (18 m) bell tower for the convent set as well as a cottage.
[4] Hal Hinson of The Washington Post wrote, "The film's comedy springs out of the incongruous pairing of a rebellious, crazy mom and a devoutly conservative daughter—that and the nuttiness of having a Jewish girl obsessed with Catholicism.
"Mermaids, adapted by the English writer June Roberts from the novel by Patty Dann, is a terribly gentle if wisecracking comedy about the serious business of growing up.
"[13] In a negative review, Time Out New York wrote: "The film is burdened by curious details and observations, and its preoccupation with all things aquatic (little sister is an ace swimmer, Mom dresses up as a mermaid for New Year's Eve, etc.)