Life During Wartime

Separated from her incarcerated husband Bill (Hinds), Trish (Janney) is about to marry again. Bill is a pedophile, so Trish couldn't be more excited to have Harvey (Lerner), a "normal" father figure for her two sons. But when Bill is released from prison and the boys finally meet their future stepdad, the family is forced to decide whether to forgive or to forget. Trish's virginal, angelic sister Joy (Henderson), is also haunted by ghosts of lovers past. On leave from her degenerate husband Allen (Williams) and her job at a New Jersey correctional facility, Joy unwittingly leaves behind a trail of shame and exposed secrets wherever she goes. In one of the film's most stylized sequences, the image of Joy walking the dark streets of Miami in her nightgown maintains her innocence against a backdrop of self-affliction and desire.