"Postcards from the Edge" represents one of Hollywood's occasional attempts to turn its cameras on itself by making a film about films and film-making. The central character is Suzanne Vale, a drug-addicted actress who is the daughter of Doris Mann, a leading cinema actress of the 1950s and 1960s. It is based on a novel by Carrie Fisher, an actress who at one time suffered from drug addiction and is the daughter of Debbie Reynolds, a leading cinema actress of the 1950s and 1960s. Despite these similarities, Fisher has denied that her novel was autobiographical. (Some, including Minnelli herself, have also seen parallels with Liza Minnelli and Judy Garland).
The main theme of the film is the relationship between mother and daughter. Suzanne's drug habits have been affecting her career and even after treatment in a rehab centre she is warned that the studio's insurance policy will cover her only if she lives with a "responsible" individual, such as her mother. Suzanne, however, finds it difficult to live with Doris, who is about as irresponsible an individual as they come, and has her own substance dependence problems, in her case with alcohol. Doris is loud, selfish and manipulative, never missing a chance to interfere in Suzanne's life. There is also a sub-plot about Suzanne's relationship with movie producer Jack Faulkner, who professes passionate love for her on their first date, which she believes until she discovers that he is also sleeping with one of her co-stars in her latest picture.
I watched this film largely because it stars Meryl Streep, one of my favourite actresses, and she is the best thing about it, even if I would not rate her performance quite as highly as the one she gave in "Silkwood", her earlier collaboration with Mike Nichols. (I have never seen "Heartburn", another film on which they worked together). Meryl even manages to do something which I would have thought beyond the capabilities of a first-rate actress- to give a convincing impersonation of a second-rate one. It is clear from the scenes where she is shooting her movie that Suzanne Vale is not meant to be an actress in the Meryl Streep class. Streep even gets to sing, and shows us that at one time she had a far better voice than the one she displayed in last year's awful "Mamma Mia!". I wondered what has happened to it over the last couple of decades.
I also liked Shirley MacLaine as Doris, which is strange as I disliked her in "Terms of Endearment", another film in which she played a domineering mother who interferes in her daughter's life. I think that the difference is that her performance as Aurora in "Terms of Endearment" was such an over-the-top caricature that it seemed quite out of place in that lugubrious tearjerker. Her performance in "Postcards from the Edge" is no less a caricature, but then the film is less serious and lighter in spirit than "Terms of Endearment", and Doris is written as the sort of larger-than-life character who is such a drama queen, offstage as well as on, that her whole life almost becomes a deliberate self-caricature. It is the two women who are at the centre of the film, but there are also cameos from three major male stars, Dennis Quaid as Jack, Gene Hackman as a film director and Richard Dreyfuss as Suzanne's doctor, who also seems to be romantically interested in her.
What I didn't like about the film was that it was, at times, too static and that it never finished what it seemed to be starting. It starts off as what seems to be a serious film about drug addiction, but this theme is never really developed. It then turns into a satire on the ways of Hollywood, but this theme is not developed either, and the film then becomes a study of a mother-daughter relationship, without approaching that subject too seriously. It has been described as a comedy, although I am not sure that is the right description if by "comedy" is meant a film primarily intended to make people laugh. (I doubt if many of the lines in "Postcards from the Edge" would have had audiences rolling in the aisles). It is a film notable for two good acting performances, but it never seems to know where it is going or what it is supposed to be saying. 6/10
The main theme of the film is the relationship between mother and daughter. Suzanne's drug habits have been affecting her career and even after treatment in a rehab centre she is warned that the studio's insurance policy will cover her only if she lives with a "responsible" individual, such as her mother. Suzanne, however, finds it difficult to live with Doris, who is about as irresponsible an individual as they come, and has her own substance dependence problems, in her case with alcohol. Doris is loud, selfish and manipulative, never missing a chance to interfere in Suzanne's life. There is also a sub-plot about Suzanne's relationship with movie producer Jack Faulkner, who professes passionate love for her on their first date, which she believes until she discovers that he is also sleeping with one of her co-stars in her latest picture.
I watched this film largely because it stars Meryl Streep, one of my favourite actresses, and she is the best thing about it, even if I would not rate her performance quite as highly as the one she gave in "Silkwood", her earlier collaboration with Mike Nichols. (I have never seen "Heartburn", another film on which they worked together). Meryl even manages to do something which I would have thought beyond the capabilities of a first-rate actress- to give a convincing impersonation of a second-rate one. It is clear from the scenes where she is shooting her movie that Suzanne Vale is not meant to be an actress in the Meryl Streep class. Streep even gets to sing, and shows us that at one time she had a far better voice than the one she displayed in last year's awful "Mamma Mia!". I wondered what has happened to it over the last couple of decades.
I also liked Shirley MacLaine as Doris, which is strange as I disliked her in "Terms of Endearment", another film in which she played a domineering mother who interferes in her daughter's life. I think that the difference is that her performance as Aurora in "Terms of Endearment" was such an over-the-top caricature that it seemed quite out of place in that lugubrious tearjerker. Her performance in "Postcards from the Edge" is no less a caricature, but then the film is less serious and lighter in spirit than "Terms of Endearment", and Doris is written as the sort of larger-than-life character who is such a drama queen, offstage as well as on, that her whole life almost becomes a deliberate self-caricature. It is the two women who are at the centre of the film, but there are also cameos from three major male stars, Dennis Quaid as Jack, Gene Hackman as a film director and Richard Dreyfuss as Suzanne's doctor, who also seems to be romantically interested in her.
What I didn't like about the film was that it was, at times, too static and that it never finished what it seemed to be starting. It starts off as what seems to be a serious film about drug addiction, but this theme is never really developed. It then turns into a satire on the ways of Hollywood, but this theme is not developed either, and the film then becomes a study of a mother-daughter relationship, without approaching that subject too seriously. It has been described as a comedy, although I am not sure that is the right description if by "comedy" is meant a film primarily intended to make people laugh. (I doubt if many of the lines in "Postcards from the Edge" would have had audiences rolling in the aisles). It is a film notable for two good acting performances, but it never seems to know where it is going or what it is supposed to be saying. 6/10