A elderly southern matron (Patricia Neal) finally decides to off herself, a long gestating plan to join her beloved departed husband in the afterlife. When her nieces, a domineering local staple (Glenn Close) and her buffoonish sister (Julianne Moore), stumble upon the scene and decides to disguise the shameful suicide as a home invasion, leaving her black caregiver (Charles Dutton) accused of the crime, though only mildly suspected by the close knit community. Robert Altman's Cookie's Fortune is a humorous small-town drama, at once a social commentary and slice of life, also ingeniously constructed and with a great cast.
*** 1/2 out of ****
