Product: Postcards from the Edge [VHS] (1990)
Rating: 5.0
Towering Performances and a Dose of Reality
What I personally found amazing about "Postcards from the Edge" was its unexpected ability to hit home themes and issues that all of us deal with, day in and day out. Meryl Streep's amazing performance registered for me most in how "ordinary" she made this character. McClaine's over the top and still profoundly rich performance is the perfect foil for Streep's character. But the film's most extraordinary quality is in developing profound themes about parenting and relationships with those you love the most in life. We don't yearn for Suzanne's rich celebrity filled existence. Instead, we relate to it, and can easily place ourselves in her situation. That's Streep's greatest achievement - every step of the way, she's real and familiar to us. She is us. McClaine's mother is all our mothers. Not unlike the superior "All ABout My Mother" Pedro Almovodar's great film about loss and redemption, Poscards also confronts many of the same issues, though in flesh and blood. As if reminding us that unlike Esteban in "Mother" we are still living and have the opportunity to do something to work the issues through. "Postcards" stands as a rich character study of life as most of us know it - the struggle for independence as teens and young adults, the need to prove ourselves in the shadows of our parents (or mentors, or friends, or spouses) and the very real risks involved in making choices that might seem trivial at the time. Streep brings us on this journey and in return, we can use these lessons in our own somewhat bland lives. A deep and rich examination of the mother-daughter dynamic that represents the parent-child in all of us. Best moment: McClaine at the top of the stairs proclaiming "I didn't lift it up! It TWIRRRRLLLED UP!"