Like clockwork, Sharon sees an article in the local paper about a 5-year-old girl — Ed’s daughter Michelle — whose mother has just died and who now needs a liver transplant. Sharon shows up at the funeral unannounced, then tells Rose back at the salon that she thinks her destiny is to find the money for the transplant.
But meanwhile, there are huge hospital bills, and Ed can’t afford them. Without asking, Sharon holds a fundraiser and shows up at the house with several thousand dollars in cash. Ed is, understandably, perplexed at this woman who is soon eating dinner with the family. But his mother, Barbara, welcomes Sharon with open arms. “Mom, she’s a mess,” Ed says. “Perfect, she’ll fit right in here,” Barbara replies.
Certainly they need money. For one hospital stay, Ed, who has no health insurance, is charged more than $6,000 (the scene is an advertisement for socialized medicine). Soon Sharon is sitting down with Ed and going through all his bills, making piles of “urgent” and “very urgent.” (“Daddy’s in over his head,” says older daughter Ashley.) Sharon also helps Ed market his roofing skills.
But Sharon is struggling in her own life. Her estranged son, embittered by her alcoholism during his childhood, rejects her efforts to reconcile. Sharon’s words to him, even uttered by the always-authentic Swank, are trite: “I know I let you down,” she says. “Being a single mom ain’t easy.” The by-the-numbers script also leaves us wondering when, a full hour into the movie, Ed asks Sharon about her past: “Married? Kids?” You’d think that would have come up many moons ago, but OK.