Susan Sarandon radiant as she faces death head-on in family drama 'Blackbird'

“Blackbird” — ★ ★ ★

Lily the matriarch sure knows how to wake her family and get them moving in the morning.

“You up yet?” she shouts upstairs. “I'm dead soon! You coming down?”

She says under her breath, “That should do it.”

Not only does that do it, her unsettling comment provides the first clue to the true purpose for the family's descent upon her home.

Once we see Lily struggle to walk, we suspect what she soon confirms: She has ALS.

In a matter of weeks, she will lose her ability to move, then her ability to even swallow.

Her cryptic dead reference gives us another clue to the next hardly unexpected revelation. She plans on sipping a potion concocted by her physician husband, Paul (Sam Neill), and going to sleep.

Permanently.

Susan Sarandon plays Lily in Roger Michell's “Blackbird,” a domestic drama based on Bille August's 2014 Danish production “Silent Heart.”

Sarandon has traversed this terminally ill mother turf before in 1998's “Stepmom,” but brings a deeper, more nuanced performance to the character in Michell's assured directorial hands.

“Blackbird” doesn't quite match similar dramas such as “Away From Her” with Julie Christy or “Still Alice” with Julianne Moore.

Well, maybe “Still Alice,” simply because Michell and his superbly cast actors, John Paul Kelly's eye-hooking production design and Mike Eley's elegantly composed camera work elevate this basic Lifetime Channel-grade material into something far more substantial than it would normally be.

To bring viewers into the story, Paul mentions that Lily designed their beautiful house herself, and it's a modern doozy of a spread with an open staircase, natural cedar walls, an upstairs bridge and spacious architectural amenities.

Here is where Lily's relatives start showing up.

Buttoned-up control freak older daughter Jennifer (a barely recognizable Kate Winslet with schoolmarm glasses) brings her boringly square spouse, Michael (Rainn Wilson in an uncharacteristically deadpan mode), and their testy teen son, Jonathan (Anson Boon), who really wants to be an actor.

Jennifer's younger sister Anna (Mia Wasikowska) arrives, a basket case of nerves, along with her likable, unpretentious girlfriend Chris (a winning Bex Taylor-Klaus), a surprise guest.

Lily's lifelong supportive bestie Liz (Lindsay Duncan) also joins the farewell party, prompting resentment from the persnickety Jennifer, who would prefer the group remain an all-family affair.

Screenwriter Christian Torpe, adapting his own original screenplay to “Silent Heart,” puts his characters through standard-issue domestic drama paces.

Old sibling rivalries rise up between the sisters, but they agree to get along, given the gravity of their visit.

Lily sets her departure time for Sunday, and the family has agreed to this, but first, they celebrate a premature Christmas-styled last supper and gift exchange.

Things are going along so smoothly and the guests are behaving themselves so well that it almost comes as a relief when someone finally bolts from the pacified pack by napalming the room with pent-up feelings of blame and rejection.

From here on, “Blackbird” reveals its Lifetime Channel foundation, piling on revelations that feel as if they've been tacked on for effect, rather than springing organically from the characters.

I can't help but wonder why so many health crisis dramas tend to strike well-off characters, and therefore can take monetary issues off the narrative table.

I get that financial struggles aren't sexy, but they are real, and in 2020 when affordable health care still dominates the national agenda along with global warming and race relations, you'd think a few terminal illness movies might reflect the economic realities of ordinary people.

Then again, we are dealing with a movie in which Susan Sarandon with her burning red tresses still looks positively radiant for a woman on her way out.

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Starring: Susan Sarandon, Kate Winslet, Mia Wasikowska, Sam Neill, Bex Taylor-Klaus, Rainn Wilson

Directed by: Roger Michell

Other: A Screen Media Films release in theaters and on Video on Demand. Rated R for language, drug use, sexual situations. 97 minutes