"I'm still here."
By Yahoo! Movie User on
Mon, Jun 14, 2010 5:32 PM EDT
Suzanne Vale (Meryl Streep) is a substance addicted Hollywood actress who, despite a brilliant career, now appears to be past her prime.
The opening scene is a great one because the audience believes it is the beginning of the movie, when actually it's a movie WITHIN a movie, directed to perfection by Lowell Kolchek (Gene Hackman), who lets Suzanne know, he knows about the drugs, and to never take them on his set again.
Later, at the beach-side house of a stranger named Jack Faulkner (Dennis Quaid), Suzanne has an overdose, and has to be rushed to the hospital, to get her stomach pumped by Dr. Frankenthal (Richard Dreyfuss), who clearly has a crush on her.
After being admitted into rehab by Julie Marsden (C.C.H Pounder), and released a few weeks later, Suzanne is left to confront her rather tense relationship with her mother, Doris Mann (Shirley McLaine), a big star in her own right, who has a strong stubborn nature, much like her daughter's, and is very inflexible when it comes to certain issues:
"All the women in our family have died young."
"Grandma is still alive." Suzanne points out.
Barely...And, dear, don't contradict me."
Determined to make a movie called L.A. Beat (despite the fact that it's a trashy cops and robbers flick), Suzanne moves in with her mother (it being the only way the producers will let her make the movie), and is subsequently courted by Jack Faulkner, who it turns out, is a world-class womanizer...
A fact which is brutally confirmed by fellow actress Evelyn Ames (a terrific Annette Benning early in her career), who practically quotes word for word all the lines Jack's been using to seduce Suzanne.
On top of which the producers of L.A Beat, feel Suzanne is a withering flower, and desperately wish they could've gotten a different actress.
Postcards from the Edge does not sound like an hysterically funny comedy (the issues that it tackles being heavy and hard to swallow) but it really is.
The fact that the film-makers find humor, in the most depressing facets of life is what makes the movie so outstanding.
I really admire Carrie Fisher for writing such an outstanding Screenplay. And Mike Nichols, as always, does a great job as the Director.
The title of the review comes from a song which Doris Mann sings to celebrate her daughter's release from rehab.
Far from being a sappy song about love for her child, it's an agressive, self-confident affirmation which underlines (more than anything else could) the tension between mother and daughter, and why the two don't get along at all.
I wish that I could re-create more of the humor, but it's the kind of movie you have to see to really get.
The jacket is one of the best in Hollywood history, and both lead actresses are spectacular.
Another thing that really makes the movie, are all the cameo from actors who are now big stars.
Among those I didn't mention are Oliver Platt, Rob Reiner, Simon Callow and Robin Bartlett.
An hysterically funny, true to life, non-shmaltzy story about finding The Edge, and clawing your way back up again.
The opening scene is a great one because the audience believes it is the beginning of the movie, when actually it's a movie WITHIN a movie, directed to perfection by Lowell Kolchek (Gene Hackman), who lets Suzanne know, he knows about the drugs, and to never take them on his set again.
Later, at the beach-side house of a stranger named Jack Faulkner (Dennis Quaid), Suzanne has an overdose, and has to be rushed to the hospital, to get her stomach pumped by Dr. Frankenthal (Richard Dreyfuss), who clearly has a crush on her.
After being admitted into rehab by Julie Marsden (C.C.H Pounder), and released a few weeks later, Suzanne is left to confront her rather tense relationship with her mother, Doris Mann (Shirley McLaine), a big star in her own right, who has a strong stubborn nature, much like her daughter's, and is very inflexible when it comes to certain issues:
"All the women in our family have died young."
"Grandma is still alive." Suzanne points out.
Barely...And, dear, don't contradict me."
Determined to make a movie called L.A. Beat (despite the fact that it's a trashy cops and robbers flick), Suzanne moves in with her mother (it being the only way the producers will let her make the movie), and is subsequently courted by Jack Faulkner, who it turns out, is a world-class womanizer...
A fact which is brutally confirmed by fellow actress Evelyn Ames (a terrific Annette Benning early in her career), who practically quotes word for word all the lines Jack's been using to seduce Suzanne.
On top of which the producers of L.A Beat, feel Suzanne is a withering flower, and desperately wish they could've gotten a different actress.
Postcards from the Edge does not sound like an hysterically funny comedy (the issues that it tackles being heavy and hard to swallow) but it really is.
The fact that the film-makers find humor, in the most depressing facets of life is what makes the movie so outstanding.
I really admire Carrie Fisher for writing such an outstanding Screenplay. And Mike Nichols, as always, does a great job as the Director.
The title of the review comes from a song which Doris Mann sings to celebrate her daughter's release from rehab.
Far from being a sappy song about love for her child, it's an agressive, self-confident affirmation which underlines (more than anything else could) the tension between mother and daughter, and why the two don't get along at all.
I wish that I could re-create more of the humor, but it's the kind of movie you have to see to really get.
The jacket is one of the best in Hollywood history, and both lead actresses are spectacular.
Another thing that really makes the movie, are all the cameo from actors who are now big stars.
Among those I didn't mention are Oliver Platt, Rob Reiner, Simon Callow and Robin Bartlett.
An hysterically funny, true to life, non-shmaltzy story about finding The Edge, and clawing your way back up again.
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