Chris Columbus’ Stepmom (released on Dec. 25, 1998) is a polished studio tearjerker that leans hard into sentiment but earns many of its tears through grounded performances and a surprisingly nuanced look at blended families.
The plot follows Jackie Harrison (Susan Sarandon), a devoted stay-at-home mother, and her ex-husband Luke (Ed Harris), a successful attorney in New York.
Their children, angsty preteen Anna (Jena Malone) and younger brother Ben (Liam Aiken), shuttle between Jackie’s warm but tightly controlled home and Luke’s new life with his much younger girlfriend, Isabel Kelly (Julia Roberts), a fashion photographer unused to kids and chaos.
Isabel genuinely tries to connect with Anna and Ben, but every effort is undermined by Jackie’s protective hostility and the children’s loyalty to their mother.
Early conflicts—missed school pickups, misunderstandings, and a frightening incident when Ben briefly goes missing—cement Isabel’s status as the unwelcome outsider.
The emotional axis of the film shifts when Jackie is diagnosed with cancer and later learns it is terminal.
Faced with the reality that she may not see her children grow up, Jackie’s resentment toward Isabel curdles into grief and fear: fear of being replaced, fear of being forgotten.
Isabel, for her part, must confront the possibility that she will step into a maternal role built on someone else’s absence.
Gradually, through shared crises and small acts of grace, the two women move from open warfare to fragile truce to genuine mutual respect—culminating in an affecting Christmas sequence where Jackie symbolically welcomes Isabel into the family portrait, acknowledging that love for the children will have to outlive her.
Sarandon gives Jackie a complex blend of sharp wit, anger, and raw vulnerability, never letting the character become a saintly martyr.
Roberts balances Isabel’s career-girl gloss with insecurity and humility, growing more credible as a future stepmother as the story unfolds.
Harris, Malone, and Aiken add emotional ballast, fleshing out a family that feels lived-in rather than schematic.
Julia Roberts in Stepmom (Photo/Sony Pictures)
Reception for Stepmom
Stepmom grossed $19.1 million on its opening weekend, finishing second at the box office.
The film would gross $159.7 million worldwide.
Roger Ebert gave Stepmom two out of four stars in his review.
Legacy
Stepmom is remembered as a quintessential late-’90s tearjerker—middlebrow, manipulative at times, but resonant for many viewers navigating divorce, remarriage, and terminal illness.
It stands as a showcase for its two leads and as a culturally enduring template for how mainstream cinema frames the fraught, bittersweet handoff between one mother and another.
