Of Words & Music

Fitzgerald tells the saccharine tale of a 12-year-old girl and the grandmother she never knew she had. Lilah Kimball is a 60-year-old widow who lived by everyone else's rules, and when her estranged daughter dies, she's the only living relative to her now-orphaned granddaughter, Bethany. Thrown together by circumstance, the two, having never met, start out on rocky ground: Lilah is bitter from a life of bad choices and horrified that her son is following the footsteps of her late-husband. Bethany is distraught with grief over her mother's death and can't understand the history that drove Lilah and her mother apart. By building a relationship on their mutual love of piano, the two slowly bring each other back to life, even as a small plot wrinkle surfaces that vaguely threatens to undermine their bond. The simplistic storytelling and psychology don't do the predictable narrative any favors.