Grade: D+

Verdict: A schematic Italian-American comedy-drama.

Details: Starring Mercedes Ruehl, Dinah Manoff, Sean Young and Cloris Leachman. Rated PG for mild profanity and brief sensuality. One hour, 31 minutes.

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Review: On principle, you really really want to like “The Amati Girls.” In an industry dominated by men, here's a movie that's written and directed by a woman, stars some talented women, and it's about women. It's also insufferable.

There's a whole lotta huggin' goin' on in this comedy-drama about four adult sisters and their families. When they're not hugging, these characters are speaking in slogans and catch phrases. Here are a few of them:

“I really don't recognize you as the man I loved,” says Christine (Sean Young) to her workaholic hubby Paul (Jamey Sheridan).

“Work with who he is , not who he isn't,” her older sister Grace (Mercedes Ruehl) advises her.

“You worry too much,” Aunt Splendora (Lee Grant) urges one niece. “You ought to have more faith in life.”

“Every pot has a top,” says Denise (Dinah Manoff) to her mentally afflicted sister Dolores (Lily Knight), when Dolores wonders if she will ever find a boyfriend.

The Amati sisters live in Philadelphia, as does their mother Dolly (Cloris Leachman). Bereft after her husband's death, Dolly is so gloomy about the future she asks Grace to sew the dress for her funeral. Like the others, she's less a character than a quirk.

Consisting mainly of scenes in which the sisters console, advise or bicker with each other, “The Amati Girls” is sitcom-tidy and dramatically inert. It's the sort of movie whose climax happens at a ballet recital, where errant dad Sheridan not only reconciles with his daughter, he also saves his imperiled marriage. Then, somebody dies in order to milk some last-act, “Terms-of-Magnolias” tears.

Writer-director Anne DeSalvo, herself an actress, trowels on Italian-American, Roman-Catholic color. When Grace isn't making spaghetti sauce, she's advising her sisters to pray. The various saints are beseeched according to their specialties, reducing them to the equivalent of spiritual, over-the-counter medications. Oh, there's also a heated argument over the merits of Frank Sinatra vs. Tony Bennett.

Those Amati girls, they're awfully nice. But I'll take the Sopranos any day of the week.

— Steve Murray, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution