Bons baisers d'Hollywood

A good supporting cast and director, and a pleasantly ironic view of Hollywood life, can't quite save this from the perfectly soulless, textbook actress Streep totally miscast as the insecure (and infinitely sexier, more intuitive actress) Fisher. I never believed for a minute this woman was vulnerable: Streep is a ballbreaker who should only play larger than life villainous roles.

Debiee Reynolds/Carrie Fisher or MacLaine/Streep? It doesn't really matter. A comedy that swims around a theme without ever getting anywhere. To see Streep and MacLaine together is enough to make this a collector's item. The cheerful side of the Ingrid Bergman/Liv Ullman grim Ingman Bergman "Autumn Sonata" I know that Carrie Fisher with her American wit was telling us something, something personal but did it have to be so shallow? There is nothing about this characters with a hint of depth. Drugs and alcohol part of a culture in permanent denial. Maybe that's what it is. We're witnessing the replicas of what used to be human beings. The hurt is so flimsy. He may have told a million women that they smelled like Catalina, so what? Didn't she notice the phoniness in Dennis Quaid's smirk? I had to rush and see "Plenty" and stare into Meryl Streep's face to be reminded of her greatness. Not that she's bad here, not at all, she's wonderful, it's the character that made me recoil in horror. Okay, enough of that. the combination of MacLaine and Streep is terrific and the film will keep you entertained even if, like in my case, will leave you with a toxic aftertaste.

Great performances by Meryl Streep and Shirley MacLaine. They are both hilarious and poignant in this Carrie Fisher story about a show business daughter coming through the process of working out emotional trauma and baggage in relation to her mother, upbringing and subsequent addiction problems. Also especially good is Gene Hackman in a small supporting role and a cameo by Rob Reiner. Streep and MacLaine carry this film with their talents and are very entertaining as they confront each other and themselves about personal flaws and foibles. What makes this work so well is the smart and oblique humor that is employed to address the internal pain of the main character. I also liked the little jabs at the movie industry itself as well as its nonchalant way of revealing some of it's visual tricks too.

One particular touching and bittersweet scene is between Hackman (as movie director) as he comforts Streep (an actress he's working with) with a sort of lighthearted understanding and encouragement to overcome her drug addiction as he builds her up with appreciation of her talent.

Considering the obvious autobiographical nature of this story for Fisher, it would appear to be sort of a catharsis for her. She does a good job in bringing painful personal issues to light with humor through her writing. Personal pain and demons often seem to be the source of great art and entertainment as well as amusement for many artists and through their art, for the rest of us as well. This is a case in point and definitely worth the time.

Screenwriter Carrie Fisher adapted her own book--about an actress in drug rehab--into this film about a drug-addicted actress and her alcoholic movie star mama, and the two barely resemble each other. No matter, because director Mike Nichols stages the behind-the-scenes/show-biz material very well (he's visually clever, with a humorous wink to the audience). However, it's momentarily disappointing that the film is so lightweight and doesn't strive to be more substantial, or that Meryl Streep hasn't really zeroed in on her character (she spends much of her time being comically frazzled). Streep's scenes with mother Shirley MacLaine are colorful and well-written, but her interludes with smug lover Dennis Quaid are embarrassing, with both stars spitting out silly lines of dialogue--and Nichols and his editor just letting them ramble. A plot-thread about Streep's shady business manager is brought up only to be forgotten about (we meet the man in question early in the film and he appears to be a forthright person of integrity), while the finale is a musical dead-end (is it supposed to be part of a movie or a music video?). Streep does an amiable Wynnona Judd impersonation here--and even resembles her!--but the picture is thin (it is exceptional, perhaps, only in its thinness). Gene Hackman as a director has a forceful moment at the beginning before he's turned into an understanding daddy, while Richard Dreyfuss plays a doctor who pumps Streep's stomach and sends her flowers the next day. Fisher and Nichols stay soft; they never get offensive or edgy--and maybe that's part of the problem. **1/2 from ****

Postcards From The Edge is one of my all-time favorites. It's a truly addictive movie that's always funny and touching no matter how many times I see it. Some of the criticism I've read have always seemed just a tad off base, particularly the ones that say that Streep never seems to get a handle on her character--she just acts kind of comically frazzled. Well I think that's the point, isn't it? Streep as Fisher doesn't know what she wants or who she is, and while trying to discover these things, she must battle her drug dependence, rebuild her career against all odds and hope, in addition to trying to reconcile her relationship with her outlandishly domineering mother, who just happens to be a legendary star with issues of her own. In this scenario, "frazzled" would seem to be the way to go.

In any case, those who have commented positively on the movie have mostly mentioned the great performances (as well as Carrie Fisher's wonderful screenplay), and rightly so since this is one the most smartly acted (and well-written) movies you will ever see. But it seems strange that the outstanding direction of Mike Nichols is rarely mentioned. I remember one Oscar ceremony when a producer whose movie had just won Best Picture, and, indeed, swept all the major awards--except Best Director--said "apparently the Academy thinks that the actors directed themselves." It would seem that many of the viewers of Postcards From The Edge think the same thing. In my opinion, Nichols doesn't get enough credit for the seamless way this movie moves or for the crispness of the comic timing. At every turn, he brings out the best in his actors, most especially in the dynamic scenes involving Streep and McLaine. I also love the way he shows, through shifting background effects, how movie illusions are created, which he further uses to illustrate how we often hide our true motivations. (The great example of this is in the scene on the lot with Streep and Dennis Quaid where he was trying to convince her he has always been sincere in his feelings for her--and maybe they should even marry. Then suddenly the background, a house and white picket fence cardboard front, is moved away by a production crew.)

This is a wonderfully entertaining movie, brilliantly acted and written and, yes, superbly directed.