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 ****