An interesting heartfelt story with great performance by Glenn Close as MawMaw, but unfortunately, many sappy cheesy over manipulative scenes that are pushing messages with a sledgehammer instead of making the points in a more nuanced manner. I mean, are we honestly to believe that JD is completely clueless about basic wine and cutlery knowledge when he is a 3rd year law student at Yale? Followed shortly thereafter by a ridiculous and unbelievable exchange at the dinner table with a number of lawyers and other students. Scenes like this cheapen what could have been a great movie. The screenplay pushes caricatured messages and stereotypes too hard rather than character development. The cultural differences and challenges of being from a poor or lower class background trying to integrate into an upper class world, most often present themselves in a much more subtle way than presented here.
Notwithstanding these shortcomings and a generally oversimplified way of getting its messages across, there are some redeeming thought provoking qualities in this movie that make it worth watching. And Glenn Close is great!