Goldie Hawn and Susan Sarandon embody the different directions we can take from our youth in this parents clash with teenagers while trying to live their lives drama.

Suzette (Hawn) is living pretty much as she has always lived, or at least she believes she is. The movie opens as she pleads to keep the same job she's always had, at a seedy LA rock-and-roll bar, where once Jim Morrison collapsed on top of her... She's subsequently fired and sets out to reunite with her long-ago best friend after reminiscing over some photos as she drowns her sorrows.

Lavinia Kingsley (Sarandon) has moved away, reborn into a standard suburban lifestyle, aptly, to Phoenix. She's got the whole package, she points out; the respectable husband, big house, kids, dogs, mini-van... She is at first mortified at the sight of Suzette and the disruption to her seemingly perfect lifestyle. She's drawn in as Suzette makes the effort to reconnect.

Caught in the turmoil are Harry (Geoffrey Rush), a self-admitted failing writer that Suzette picks up as she drives from LA to Phoenix, and the Kingsley family members that are disrupted as Suzette reminds Lavinia of her glorious past.

Harry aspires to shoot his father, and curiously finds a muse in Suzette. Suzette finds Harry likeable, and actually seems to use him as a reality anchor when she feels that her bits are spinning out of control. At first Harry is obviously a resource that Suzette can ever so gently take advantage of (he's got a hotel room, and she's got no money). She draws Harry into the mess a bit as the high school partiers tresspass on his tranquility, and she ends up helping one of the Kingsley kids through a rough night of partying, but he never gets entangled, he's always on the side.

The Kingsley family are experiencing their own growing pains as the older Hanna is graduating from high school and is about to transition into adulthood and college. The younger Ginger is a flibberty-gibit, who blames the DMV tester for her failure to achieve a driver's license; like she'd run a red light on a test, she proclaims. Dad's just trudging along, and possibly like too many suburban dads is a passenger along for the drama ride.

The lead gals (and the film) are nicknamed for the innuendo it suggests; they were groupies to the greats, and banged 'em all. Some roadies, too, they let us know. They partied with the Doors, they have a collection of penis photos of all of the musicians, and some roadies, that they've seen...and whether scattered like Suzette, or gathered like Lavinia, they've survived.

How timely to watch the movie as I have some turmoil in my own house, as my sixteen-year old girl child is going through her own transition from kid to adult. More like the scattered Ginger, also sixteen, than the over-achieving Hanna, mine is sure she's not at fault for any of her actions; I am ruining her life.

Both Suzette and Lavinia find themselves in the end.

In a deeply moving valedictorian speech, Hannah gives a profound insight into the need of people to live up to their inner truths, not the expectations of others. That they need to be allowed to make mistakes and live through them; as long as they are true to themselves, what's bad about it? I would argue, given the confines of the film, that Hannah owes her eloquence and articulation to the fact that she was driven to being such an over-achiever; that her Nitsche-esque insights wouldn't have been made possible had she not been exposed to the wider variety of things that over-achievers reach for.

Lavinia loosens up some, but digs the suburban life. She recognizes that her kids need to have experiences, and by reflection, realizes that the experiences aren't going to turn them into horrible people; heck, she seems to have turned out. We believe that the family will press on and survive the rumbles their visitor has brought them.

Suzette recognizes that she wants someone to call family. She and Harry travel back to LA together, with the potential spark of continued romance, but no promises or evident plans. Loose and free. Like she is.