Nice Values. Pathetic. (spoilers)

Rating: 2/10 (30 July 2007)

What on earth was up with the five minutes or so at the end of the film making a footnote of the fact that Edith Piaf had lost her only child several years prior to meningitis? We spend an enormous amount of time on her relationship with Marcel Cerdan, whose death is clearly made out to be the most pivotal point in her life, yet the fact that her child died is nearly insignificant in the film. I'm not sure if this represents how seriously screwed up Ms. Piaf's values were, or that of the film's creators, or that of society in general, but how deplorable - that the most tragic event in her life was the death of her married lover, not of her child. Thank goodness most women in the "real world" have better values than what is represented by Ms. Piaf's character in this film.
Perhaps I'm just simple minded, or have had too easy of a life, but I have absolutely no desire to spend two hours and twenty minutes of my time watching another person's utter train wreck of a life. This movie made me sad for the memory of Edith Piaf...how embarrassing to live an entire life and make such lovely music only to be portrayed 40 years later as merely a spoiled, drug-addicted puppet with absolutely no redeeming qualities. And if this portrayal is accurate, why oh why would we celebrate her life by making a movie about it?
I'm not saying everying should be Disneyfied and I understand that tragedy is long standing cinematic tradition, but for my money, I'd rather see movies about women who actually managed to overcome the obstacles in their lives, and not simply succumb to them. There are so many positive stories out there to be told, why must we wallow in such dreariness?