Mermaids (1990 Film)

Mermaids is a 1990 American family comedy-drama film directed by Richard Benjamin, and starring Cher, Bob Hoskins, Winona Ryder, Michael Schoeffling, and Christina Ricci in her film debut. Based on Patty Dann's 1986 novel of the same name, and set in the early 1960s, its plot follows a neurotic teenage girl who moves with her wayward mother and young sister to a small town in Massachusetts.

Plot
In 1963 Oklahoma, Charlotte Flax is a neurotic 15-year-old whose carefree single mother, Rachel, relocates Charlotte and her 9-year-old half-sister, Kate, each time she ends a relationship. Rachel's parenting approach - which more resembles friendship than mothering - troubles the anxiety-ridden Charlotte, who is embarrassed by her mother's flamboyant nature.

After ending an affair with her married employer, Rachel and her daughters move to the small town of Eastport, Massachusetts where she also gets a job as a receptionist for a lawyer. Charlotte is ecstatic about their new home's location, as it borders a convent, and she is obsessed with Catholicism, to the annoyance of her irreligious Jewish mother.

Charlotte soon becomes enamored with Joe Poretti, a 26-year-old caretaker of the convent and local school bus driver. Meanwhile, Rachel meets a local shoe store owner, Lou Landsky, and slowly begins a relationship with him. After the assassination of John F. Kennedy, Charlotte finds Joe ringing the convent bell and consoles him. However, as they begin to kiss she feels filled with sin and flees. After the encounter, she begins fasting to purge her sinful thoughts, eventually passing out from hunger. Uneducated about sex, Charlotte fears that God will punish her with pregnancy via immaculate conception, and decides to steal her mother's car and run away. She drives all night before stopping at the home of a young family in New Haven, Connecticut, claiming to have suffered car troubles.

The family invites her to have breakfast, but Lou arrives to retrieve Charlotte during the meal, having tracked her after reporting the car stolen. Rachel chastises Charlotte when she returns home, but doesn't reveal why she ran away. The next day, Charlotte makes an appointment with a local obstetrician under the name Joan Arc. The doctor tells Charlotte it isn't possible for her to be pregnant.

At a New Year's Eve costume party, Lou asks Rachel to marry and move in with him, but she declines, reminding him he is still legally married to his wife (who had left him). After the party, discovering her car refuses to start, Rachel is given a ride home by Joe. Upon arriving home, Rachel gives Joe a kiss, wishing him a happy New Year.

Charlotte observes the kiss, becoming enraged, believing her mother is trying to thwart her budding relationship. On New Year's Day, with Rachel out for the day with Lou, Charlotte babysits Kate and she gets drunk. She soon wanders to the convent seeking rocks from the lake. She finds Joe in the bell tower, and leaves Kate unattended by a river. While Charlotte and Joe have sex in the tower, Kate nearly drowns in the river, but the nuns save her.

While Kate recovers, an infuriated Rachel gets into an argument with Charlotte about being irresponsible, and threatens to again move them to another town. The argument ends after Rachel slaps Charlotte in the face, and they subsequently have a calm, heartfelt conversation. Discussing her father, Charlotte realizes he is never coming back. Rachel ultimately agrees to Charlotte's plea to stay in Eastport at least one more year.

Over the following year, Rachel and Lou continue their relationship, while Joe relocates to California to open a plant nursery; he and Charlotte keep in contact via postcards. At school, she has gained a new reputation due to her sexual encounter with Joe, and replaces her Catholicism obsession with Greek mythology. Kate recovered and is swimming again, although the accident left her hearing sometimes "sounding fuzzy".

The film ends with Rachel, Charlotte, and Kate playfully dancing as they set the dinner table for a family meal, something they didn't used to do.

Links
Mermaids page on IMDB