Product: Postcards from the Edge [VHS] (1990)
Rating: 4.0
One of the best Hollywood "insider" movies
The insider here telling all is Carrie Fisher (of Princess Leia fame), daughter of crooner Eddie Fisher and songstress Debbie Reynolds. Carrie adapted the screenplay from her best-selling novel of the same name in which she tells us what it's like (through her protagonist Suzanne Vale) to drug rehab Hollywood style. As a writer she has a sharp eye for the hypocrisy of movie land culture, dysfunctional relationships, and a splendid gift for cutting one-liners. Her dialogue made the book, and is the heart and soul of the movie. Here are a few examples:"Instant gratification takes too long." (A takeoff on, and a reinvention of, the doper's "Too much is never enough.")"...Endolphin rush." (Annette Bening corrects with, "You mean enDORphin rush.")"I am so glad that I got sober now so I can be hyper-conscious for this series of humiliations." (Suzanne Vale on her life without the deadening effect of drugs.)Playing Carrie Fisher's alter ego is Meryl Streep, one of the great actresses of our time, while Shirley MacLaine, another outstanding star, plays the mother.Streep is nearly flawless as always. She just demands the camera, and she has extraordinary talent. In the finale she sings a country and western song (from Carly Simon, by the way) and she does a great job. But she seems almost absurd in the police uni (playing a part in a movie within a movie). She doesn't seem to be achieving a comedic effect and then she does, just this side of the ridiculous. But, as usual with Steep, when the camera gets on her face, we believe her.Particularly telling was the opening scene, nicely directed by Mike Nichols. I could see the familiar Palos Verdes cliffs and the shots of the ocean below. As I waited for the SoCal scene to unfold (actually it was supposed to be Mexico) I thought, "Gee, this looks like a cheap MOW set," and I continued to be fooled as Streep is hauled from customs by the customs officer and slapped. It is only when they go to "cut!" and the movie within the movie is exposed that I realized why the set looked cheap. (Because it was supposed to!)Streep sold the scene within the scene, and irony, she was supposed to be doing a terrible job because of her character's drug dependency.Somehow a scene with Meryl Streep in it never drags. Maybe she guides the direction and the editing. Thinking back (this is the first movie of hers I've seen in years) to Sophie's Choice, for example--1982 best actress Oscar and other honors--she hasn't changed much except that she's a little more relaxed, and while her concentration is still total, there is a touch less urgency in her performance. I've heard people complain about her mannerisms, that head to the side so that the corner of the mouth goes up, a little defensive smile, and then the flash of eyes, comes to mind, and some others; but compared with say, Dustin Hoffman or (horrors) John Wayne, she's as pure as Olivier.I liked her timing on the "..And you weren't wearing any underwear" line (talking about the embarrassment of her drunk mother showing her legs at a party in the past).Shirley MacLaine is, if anything, even better here as--dare I say it?--"Debbie Reynolds," one part alcoholic, one part stage mom, and one part frustrated actress jealous of her daughter's youth and talent, all parts overbearing. I recall Shirley MacLaine as a young woman. I can see her in Can-Can (1960) showing off those gorgeous legs (she shows her legs here too, but I cringed along with her daughter). She was pretty, healthy and busting her bodice as a young actress, and I liked her, but she was never more than a popular actress. Then came, Terms of Endearment (1983).Shirley MacLaine is the classic example of the actress who really learned how to act as she got older, not unlike Betty Davis, who also got better as she aged. Shirley MacLaine (Warren Beatty's sister, one recalls) did get an academy award nomination for The Apartment (1960) with Jack Lemmon, but did not win.I liked the hospital scene here at the end, mother and daughter renewing their bonds, Shirley without her wig, and no make-up. You know you've got a serious actress when she will let herself look naturally terrible for the camera!This is a true tinsel town original in which Hollywood self-analyzes in public, to be ranked in the vicinity of Sunset Boulevard (1950) and The Player (1992)--in different ways, of course--for giving us a glimpse of what it's really like to live the dream. (Or is it a nightmare?)