Having always been a Toni Collette fan, I was happy to hear that she was the star of a new Showtime series. I was even happier when the first season of "United States of Tara" arrived at the libraries on DVD.
Collette, who is Australian by the way (I didn't know that), played the mom in "The Sixth Sense." She also played the mom in "Little Miss Sunshine." Once again she plays a mom, but this time she is split into 4 parts.
Yes, she has dissociative identity disorder -- which (shades of "Sybil") used to be known as multiple personality disorder. As the series starts, she and her family have just agreed that the drugs she is taking are not worth the side-effects, and she is off her meds.
Collette is magnificent at morphing into the various personalities. In fact, the four-time nominee just took home the Golden Globe for leading actress in a comedy TV series.
Rounding out the cast are John Corbett (the nice guy who Carrie leaves on "Sex and the City" -- still a really really nice guy) as her husband Max, Kier Gilchrist as son Marshall, Brie Larson as daughter Kate, and Rosemarie DeWitt as sister Charmaine. Each family member is unique and a bit flawed but they all soldier on, with humor and grace.
Give this one a try. The second season just started in January.
