In burying her mother, small town pharmacist and 40-year-old spinster Ave Maria Mulligan (Ashley Judd), unearths a scandalous family secret. The brief documentary history of the titular Virginia town that opens novelist and first-time director Adriana Trigiani’s undoubting romantic comedy suggested something more than another serving of Fried Green Magnolias. Included in the story is a long forgotten moment in history that, with the help of John Belushi, briefly put the town on the map. Prior to this film, Big Stone Gap was best remembered as the place Liz Taylor famously choked on a chicken bone while campaigning with hubby #7, Sen. John Warner. Footnotes aside, the good-natured film never achieves the level of Capra-filtered-through-Altman that it strives for. That doesn’t stop the strong supporting cast form giving it their all, save Whoopi Goldberg, whom Trigiani saddled with a one-note grump. With Patrick Wilson, Anthony LaPaglia, and Jenna Elfman. (2014) — Scott Marks