There are a number of Julia Roberts films that are so iconic they are almost impossible to forget. These include Pretty Woman, Ocean’s Eleven, and Erin Brockovich — the latter for which she won an Oscar for best actress in 2001. But with a career spanning over three decades, it’s easy for many of her lesser-known films to get left behind.
Count the 1998 drama Stepmom among those. It did well at the box office, pulling in $159 million, qualifying it as a success even though it might not be what you’d automatically associate with her. But now, the film has found a renewed life streaming on Netflix, and has risen up the charts to become the number 10 most-watched movie in the United States as per FlixPatrol.
The film follows Isabel, played by Roberts, who is getting set to become a stepmom after getting engaged to divorcee Luke. The only problem is Luke’s ex-wife Jackie despises Isabel, but after Jackie is diagnosed with cancer, the two women must put their differences aside to do right by the kids.
It’s no surprise the film did well when you take into account the movie also stars Susan Sarandon, who was not far removed for her outstanding Oscar-winning performance in the 1995 drama Dead Man Walking. Stepmom was also directed by the talented Chris Columbus, who later went on to direct the first two Harry Potter films., which have found controversy lately due to transphobic comments from creator J.K. Rowling.
It is clear audiences loved Stepmom as evinced by its box office perfomarnce as well as its 75 percent audience rating on Rotten Tomatoes, but it didn’t seem to land so well with critics who gave it a rotten 46 percent on the Tomatometer. Of course, this isn’t the first time that critics slammed a movie that went on to find justice when it started streaming on Netflix.
Stepmom is a good bet to warm your heart throughout the holiday period; if you’re looking for a Julia Roberts gem you might have forgotten, get to Netflix.