With a complete lack of both sentimentality and judgment, this touching, deeply moving drama pursues the hard-edged truths about the physical and emotional dispersion of the modern American family and the way in which different generations are all but incapable of sharing the same space. McCarey asks us to see the characters as human and flawed, rather than as right or wrong, good or bad. Thus, when it comes to the uncompromised ending, which flies in the face of typical Hollywood uplift, the film has earned its tears and hopefully made us think a little bit more about the people around us and how we treat them. (DVD)