Giving a leading role to Jacki Weaver is something any filmmaker should be commended for. The veteran actress is a welcome presence anywhere, no matter the topic. Casting her as the lead in a fish out of water type dramedy? Well, that should be the main ingredient to a delicious cinematic dish. Unfortunately, Stage Mother ends up more like a fast food dish when you were hoping for fine dining. Does it mostly get the job done? Sure, but it also doesn’t particularly satisfy you. The premise, along with Weaver’s talents, ultimately keep this from being something that leaves an impression on you. Opening this week, it’s a missed opportunity for something wonderful. The movie is a dramedy, focused on a southern woman evolution in the Bay Area. When Maybelline (Weaver), a conservative, Texas church-choir director finds out that her son Rickey (Eldon Thiele) has passed away from a drug overdose, she’s devastated. Discovering that she’s also inherited San Francisco-based drag club Pandora’s Box, she’s surprised. However, she out and out shocks her simple husband Jeb (Hugh Thompson), along with just about everyone else she knows by not selling the property off. Instead, she heads to California on her own, with a mind to save the club from bankruptcy. Initially quite put off by this environment, she slowly begins to embrace it, becoming a mother figure of sorts to the club’s many flamboyant performers, while also seeing a potential second act to her life. Bonding with Rickey’s best friend Sienna (Lucy Liu) and his partner Nathan (Adrian Grenier), Maybelline is more at home than she ever could have guessed. Of course, third act surprises will threaten this, but that’s kind of a requirement for a story of this sort. Thom Fitzgerald directs a screenplay by Brad Hennig, with music from Warren Robert, as well as cinematography by Thomas M. Harting. Rounding out the cast are Allister MacDonald, Calem MacDonald, Oscar Moreno, Mya Taylor, and more. Everything about this film is fine. That’s the problem, however. It’s all just fine. The flick is occasionally charming, but often stale. It’s sometimes funny, though the humor doesn’t always land. Jacki Weaver is solid, though the rest of the cast is under-served by the material. Thom Fitzgerald’s direction and Brad Hennig’s writing are wildly inconsistent, with pacing that suggests a project double this one’s 90 minute or so length. It all just goes like […]