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All I Wish

In All I Wish, Sharon Stone, who turned 60 this year, plays a 46-year-old Los Angeles fashion designer with a life that probably looks pretty glamorous to most plebes (39-year-old Malin Akerman was attached to the script when it started making the rounds in 2011). In the Lifetime-like world of this ladies-scream-at-each-other-and-jump-up-and-down-when-they-get-good-news rom-com, though, Senna is someone to pity since she's never been married. But really, the only thing to pity is the Slash-style top hat she wears in an early scene of the film.

Senna's best friend, Darla (Liza Lapira), who is 20 years younger, has a Jon Ceda-like man in her life, and her mother (Ellen Burstyn) teases her about her single status on the regular. Then, on her birthday, her boss (Famke Jannsen) fires her, and Darla's attempt to set her up with Adam (Scandal's Tony Goldwyn), a laid-back lawyer, doesn't go as planned. But Senna is no quitter.

Debut director Susan Walter uses five birthdays as a structuring device, and each year sees Senna at a different stage in life. There are only so many leading roles for actresses over 60, and Stone does what she can with the material, but All I Wish (originally titled A Little Something for Your Birthday) feels like the kind of thing designed to flatter its intended audience, i.e., it's okay to spend most of your life without a man, middle-aged ladies! On second thought, that isn't the world's worst message. I just wish this was a better film.

For more information about this and other films, see Movie Times.