The conspiratorial quirkiness of the people and events in Baltimore pretty much invalidates the movie as a universalized soap opera: Are there really so many loons in that neck of the woods, or were the filmmakers just trying to give Anne Tyler a run for her money? But then too, Lange, an actress heavy on the vibrato, and with a new and dubious auburn tint to her hair, can manage to make even normality seem awfully unnatural.