故事发生在十九世纪的纽约。奥斯汀医生（阿尔伯特·芬尼 Albert Finney 饰）事业有成，急流在华盛顿广场有着自己的房产，急流在当时，这就是人生成功的标志。身为奥斯汀的女儿，凯瑟琳（詹妮弗·杰森·李 Jennifer Jason Leigh 饰）对成功的父亲充满了崇拜，但是，对于女儿的平凡，奥斯汀感到十分的不满。一位名叫莫里斯（本·卓别林 Ben Chaplin 饰）的青年男子出现在了凯瑟琳的身边，对这个单纯的女孩发动了热烈的攻势，不敌莫里斯的热情，凯瑟琳很快就沦陷了，彭尼曼夫人（玛吉·史密斯 Maggie Smith 饰）亦对这个仪表堂堂的男子感到十分满意。心中略感不安的只有奥斯汀一个人，因为他知道自己的女儿会在将来继承自己价值不菲的财产，这让他对莫里斯接近凯瑟琳的初衷产生了怀疑。
何凡
回复 :When school teacher Harriet Winslow goes to Mexico to teach, she is kidnapped by Gen. Tomas Arroyo and his revolutionaries. An aging American, Ambrose "Old Gringo" Bierce also in Mexico, befriends Gen. Arroyo and meets Harriet. Bierce is a famous writer, who knowing that he is dying, wishes to keep his identity secret so he can determine his own fate. Though he likes Arroyo, Bierce tries to provoke the General's anger whenever possible in an attempt to get himself killed, thus avoiding suffering through his illness. Winslow is intrigued by both Bierce and Arroyo, and the men are in turn attracted to her. She becomes romantically involved with Arroyo. When Winslow learns of Bierce's true identity (a writer whose work she has loved and respected for years), she is singlemindedly determined to fulfill his dying wish.
回复 :Addressed to her 18-year-old daughter, the film delves into the patchwork psyche of today's young girls, connected to an infinite flow of ubiquitous Youtube tutorials (a formidable “expert” in just about everything and everything. anything, played by Julia Faure), Zoom discussions between girlfriends where we try to decide who is the coolest between Ted Bundy and Jeffrey Dahmer, dollhouses where Barbie and Ken discuss for long minutes on love and its multiple abjections… The film is placed under the auspices of Gilles Deleuze and his conference at La Fémis (“the Dream is a terrible will to power”), which has almost become a pop object in its own right with the internet.
回复 :在纽约布鲁克林区街头开设香烟店的哈维凯托，和经常到店里买烟的失意作家威廉.赫特是全片的中心人物，透过他俩的交谈各自的遭遇，理出了四个男人与一个女人之间复杂的人生故事……在东方女性版的《喜福会》造成轰动后，导演王颖转过头来拍摄一部西方男性版，同样是以几个家庭的多线发展探讨人伦亲请的可贵，但味道各有不同。这部电影能把生活中看似平凡无奇的一些细微变化作出高明的解释，不少片段有感人肺腑的剧力，证明王颖已经跨越华裔导演的民族局限性，且西方题材的掌握也能挥洒自如。
