MOVIEmeter
Top 5000
Up 863 this week

Mermaids (1990)

PG-13  |   |  Comedy, Drama, Romance  |  14 December 1990 (USA)
6.6
Your rating:
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 -/10 X  
Ratings: 6.6/10 from 20,865 users  
Reviews: 63 user | 25 critic

An unconventional single mother relocates with her two daughters to a small Massachusetts town in 1963, where a number of events and relationships both challenge and strengthen their familial bonds.

Director:

Writers:

(novel), (screenplay)
0Check in
0Share...

On Disc

at Amazon

The 25 Most Immersive Worlds in Cinema

Highly immersive cinematic worlds can carry a movie, and we've rounded up the best of the best.

See the full list

User Lists

Related lists from IMDb users

a list of 25 titles
created 06 Sep 2011
 
a list of 37 titles
created 01 Feb 2012
 
a list of 41 titles
created 19 Jan 2013
 
a list of 26 titles
created 07 Jul 2013
 
a list of 46 titles
created 17 Feb 2014
 

Related Items

Search for "Mermaids" on Amazon.com

Connect with IMDb


Share this Rating

Title: Mermaids (1990)

Mermaids (1990) on IMDb 6.6/10

Want to share IMDb's rating on your own site? Use the HTML below.

Take The Quiz!

Test your knowledge of Mermaids.

User Polls

Nominated for 1 Golden Globe. Another 3 wins. See more awards »

Videos

Photos

Learn more

People who liked this also liked... 

Little Women (1994)
Drama | Romance
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 7.3/10 X  

The March sisters live and grow in post-Civil War America.

Director: Gillian Armstrong
Stars: Susan Sarandon, Winona Ryder, Kirsten Dunst
Reality Bites (1994)
Comedy | Drama | Romance
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 6.6/10 X  

Generation X Graduates face life after college with a filmmaker looking for work and love in Houston.

Director: Ben Stiller
Stars: Winona Ryder, Ethan Hawke, Janeane Garofalo
Now and Then (1995)
Comedy | Drama
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 6.7/10 X  

Four 12-year-old girls grow up together during an eventful small-town summer in 1970.

Director: Lesli Linka Glatter
Stars: Christina Ricci, Demi Moore, Rosie O'Donnell
Moonstruck (1987)
Comedy | Drama | Romance
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 7.1/10 X  

Loretta Castorini, a book keeper from Brooklyn, New York, finds herself in a difficult situation when she falls for the brother of the man she agreed to marry (the best friend of her late husband who died seven years previously).

Director: Norman Jewison
Stars: Cher, Nicolas Cage, Olympia Dukakis
Mask (1985)
Biography | Drama
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 7.2/10 X  

A teenager with a massive facial skull deformity and biker gang mother attempts to live as normal a life as possible under the circumstances.

Director: Peter Bogdanovich
Stars: Cher, Eric Stoltz, Sam Elliott
Comedy | Drama
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 5.9/10 X  

A small town prepares for the homecoming of superstar Roxy Carmichael, as does a young outsider, who believes Roxy is her mother.

Director: Jim Abrahams
Stars: Winona Ryder, Jeff Daniels, Laila Robins
Biography | Drama | Music
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 6.2/10 X  

The life and career of the wildly controversial rock 'n' roll star, Jerry Lee Lewis.

Director: Jim McBride
Stars: Dennis Quaid, Winona Ryder, John Doe
Comedy | Fantasy | Horror
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 6.5/10 X  

Three single women in a picturesque village have their wishes granted - at a cost - when a mysterious and flamboyant man arrives in their lives.

Director: George Miller
Stars: Jack Nicholson, Cher, Susan Sarandon
Heathers (1988)
Comedy | Crime | Drama
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 7.3/10 X  

In order to get out of the snobby clique that is destroying her good-girl reputation, an intelligent teen teams up with a dark sociopath in a plot to kill the cool kids.

Director: Michael Lehmann
Stars: Winona Ryder, Christian Slater, Shannen Doherty
Comedy | Drama | Romance
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 6.2/10 X  

Bride-to-be Finn Dodd hears tales of romance and sorrow from her elders as they construct a quilt.

Director: Jocelyn Moorhouse
Stars: Winona Ryder, Ellen Burstyn, Anne Bancroft
Faithful (1996)
Comedy | Crime | Drama
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 5.9/10 X  

A depressed housewife whose husband is having an affair contemplates suicide, but changes her mind when she faces death by a killer hired to do her in.

Director: Paul Mazursky
Stars: Cher, Chazz Palminteri, Ryan O'Neal
Biography | Drama
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 7.3/10 X  

Based on writer Susanna Kaysen's account of her 18-month stay at a mental hospital in the 1960s.

Director: James Mangold
Stars: Winona Ryder, Angelina Jolie, Clea DuVall
Edit

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
...
...
...
...
Joe
...
...
Jan Miner ...
Betsy Townsend ...
Richard McElvain ...
Paula Plum ...
Dossy Peabody ...
William Paul Steele ...
Rex Trailer ...
Pete Kovner ...
Perfect Family Father
Patricia Madden ...
Perfect Family Mother
Edit

Storyline

After yet another failed relationship, Mrs. Flax (Cher) ups her family to the east coast to start all over again. Reluctantly dragged along with her is her daughter Charlotte - going through a very confusing time of her life - who wants to become a nun, and instead falls in love with a quiet, mild-mannered church employee, to the mixed response of her mother. Set at around the time of the Kennedy Assassination. Written by Paul Skerry <pauls@miles33.co.uk>

Plot Summary | Plot Synopsis

Taglines:

Mom Is Many Things. . .Normal Isn't One of Them. See more »

Genres:

Comedy | Drama | Romance

Certificate:

PG-13 | See all certifications »

Parents Guide:

 »
Edit

Details

Country:

Language:

Release Date:

14 December 1990 (USA)  »

Also Known As:

Mi madre es una sirena  »

Filming Locations:

 »

Box Office

Budget:

$31,000,000 (estimated)

Gross:

$35,419,397 (USA)
 »

Company Credits

Production Co:

 »
Show detailed on  »

Technical Specs

Runtime:

| (Ontario - edited)

Sound Mix:

Color:

(Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1
See  »
Edit

Did You Know?

Trivia

Christina Ricci's older sister and brothers appear as extras in the swim meet scene, they sit behind Charlotte, Rachel and Lou. See more »

Goofs

As the groceries are being put away, a Dole can with a 1990s logo is visible in the refrigerator. See more »

Quotes

Charlotte Flax: [while being dressed up like her mother] Care to dance, Mrs. Flax?
See more »

Connections

Referenced in E! True Hollywood Story: Winona Ryder (2002) See more »

Soundtracks

If You Wanna Be Happy
Written by Frank Guida (as Frank J. Guida), Carmela Guida & Joseph Royster
Performed by Jimmy Soul
Courtesy of Frank Guida Productions/Legrande-SPQR Records
See more »

Frequently Asked Questions

This FAQ is empty. Add the first question.

User Reviews

 
"The 400 Blows", as seen through a girl's eyes
7 August 1999 | by (Toronto, Canada) – See all my reviews

(Small-town Massachusetts fills in for Paris.)

Every shot, every nuance in this film is just right. That's mostly Richard Benjamin's doing, but the great cast got inspired -- maybe by the glowing fall colours, maybe by the nostalgic fashions of 1963 -- to really outdo themselves.

Richard Benjamin's direction deserves extra credit because he was not filming his own autobiography, the way François Truffaut was in 1959. Similarities in the two storylines encompass more than just the awkwardness of adolescence. (Charlotte watches the Singing Nun on television, while Antoine lights a candle before a holy image of Balzac.)

Cher is as good as she was earlier in "Moonstruck", while Winona exceeds her performance in "Welcome Home, Roxy Carmichael". And they both prove they can be pretty in pink.

Bob Hoskins and Cher have a genuine chemistry. Who ever would have predicted that they would make the ideal romantic couple?

If there's a better, truer, or funnier story of a girl's coming of age, I haven't been lucky enough to see it.


28 of 38 people found this review helpful.  Was this review helpful to you?

Message Boards

Recent Posts
Tower sex scene: hot or not? savagestar
The Moral of the Story is..... AliciaSofly
Kennedy assassination vaguedescription
Johnny Depp Ska8tur700
Joe-I don't understand him! spriterpuck
Is this a book? vogellejm
Discuss Mermaids (1990) on the IMDb message boards »

Contribute to This Page

Create a character page for:
?