Two Weeks

The movie's warm advocacy of hospice, with all the dignity such end-of-life care provides, does real, influential good.

Sally Field's flawless performance as a mother whose imminent death reunites her four grown children elevates a fairly formulaic melodrama in the made-for-Lifetime mode into something considerably more memorable.

Two Weeks gets into serious trouble in its clumsy attempts to offset the sadness and anxiety with humor. This pursuit of sitcom levity contaminates a movie that might have been an American answer to the hardheaded Romanian masterpiece "The Death of Mr. Lazarescu."

Though the subdued performances every so often find a poignantly understated moment, on the whole Two Weeks feels too detached and well-mannered for its own good.

Picture veers unsteadily between melodrama and light comedy, with no confidence in either.

Creaky, earnest melodrama.

Although well intentioned, has the superficial gloss of a TV movie of the week.