User Reviews

The movie is episodic and depends too much on the viewer's having prior knowledge of the life of Dorothy Parker and her literary friends. Its saving grace is Jennifer Jason Leigh as Mrs. Parker. Her only flaw is that, in trying to look and sound like Parker, her dialog is often hard to understand. Still, one of the greatest and most under-rated performances by an actress in an American film in the 1990s.

I am a fan of many of the writers who flit in and out of this movie, but I confess I don't know much about their personal lives and habits (except perhaps for Benchley, and Thurber who is only barely mentioned in this film). This film gives the viewer a good sense of what it must have been like to be part of the wildly creative crew that surrounded the legendary Algonquin Round Table, but a very confused picture of Dorothy Parker's life. Only someone who already knows her story, and can keep her various husbands and lovers in order, can piece this mish-mash together. And none of the performers are strong enough to seem like anything more than walk-ons dressed as famous people. (The "gang" scenes work because of the fast pacing; the movie drags when we spend time with the individuals.) According to comments recorded here, Miss Leigh is doing a good vocal impression of Dorothy Parker. Maybe so (I've never heard Parker), but Leigh's delivery is so totally annoying that it's enough to drive the AUDIENCE to suicide. Is she trying to do Hepburn on downers? Sometimes her mannered accent veers toward Transylvanian.

Throughout the movie, Parker herself denigrates her little "doodad" poems, but that's all the film offers us of her creative output. We never really find out about the contents of her books and plays, and how she ended up in Hollywood (and what she wrote there). After a few of her doggerel verses, they become trite. I began to wonder if people think these poems are funny because they know they're SUPPOSED to be funny.

I'm sure there's probably a good movie in Mrs. Parker's life, but I don't think this is it.

I think that this film was meant to be realist and naturalistic. However,there is the reality that this is an entertainment, and the audience has to hear and understand the lines. Supervigilance is required to do this in this movie. Not only does JJL's imitation of Dorothy Parker's speech affectations make the speech and musing of the main character difficult to understand, but the inclusion of background noise, overlapping dialog, and frequent muttering and mumbling of the performers make every character difficult to even hear, much less understand.

Since so much of this movie is about legendary people mouthing famous aphorisms, it is frustrating to only hear snippets of their lines. I suppose the idea was to toss these famous lines away to add naturalism. However, without spotlighting the conversations of the legendary characters, however contrived this might be performed, this is just a very sad movie about a bitter, unhappy, self-destructive, unproductive writer. Not very easy to watch nor very interesting.

While watching this film last night on IFC, I found myself appreciating the social, historical and artistic subject matter. Despite Mrs. Parker's obvious and overwhelming psychological dysfunctions, I felt this was a genuine "true to life" expression of one participant's subjective experiences. This was a unique, if not quite legendary, circle of literary talent -- certainly deserving of serious cinematic treatment such as this.

BUT....

There was another side to the story -- a healthier, less appalling, less depressing side. To discover "the rest of the story", I highly recommend Harpo Marx' autobiography "Harpo Speaks". Although Harpo also recalls the scathing insults and practical jokes that were a central part of the story of this Round Table group, his book relates a number of hugely funny and sometimes heart-warming scenes that indicate that at least some of these people truly cared for each other and expressed strong positive feelings in many different settings. In short, Harpo's stories (e.g. several "croquet fanatic" episodes) offer a telling comedic counterpoint to Mrs. Parker's almost continually cynical and self-pitying pathos. Read Harpo's book to balance out the negative. You'll be glad you did.

1920s poet and satirist Dorothy Parker, married to a morphine-addicted ex-soldier and recently fired as a writer for Vanity Fair, goes through a succession of men and magazine-published "doo-dads" before gaining a reputation as one of the greatest wits to come out of Depression-era New York City. "Mrs. Parker" is as rich an evocation of '20s Manhattan as we're likely to get today, and yet one wishes co-screenwriter and director Alan Rudolph would offer us more--or, at least, spring some surprises on us. There are morsels of splendorous chatter amongst the haves and have-nots of the literary world, but not enough to make a satisfying meal. Hollywood beckoned Dorothy Parker, but the experience left her depressed, as did life in general, which may be why she talked in a world-weary, dry-arch style which gave the impression of a woman with many disappointments in her closet. This is fascinating subject matter for the movies, but Rudolph barely dramatizes the material at all; he's so closed off from what's happening on the screen, many sequences plod by without any directorial nourishment. Certainly the large and interestingly cast group of actors on display are worth watching, though there are possibly too many real-life personalities rushing by us, everyone nonchalantly vying for time. Parker's "goodbye cruel war" attitude did not back her up in the end and, living until the year 1967, she survived most of her Algonquin Round Table cohorts. The film does not sentimentalize her or put her up on a pedestal, but neither does it help us to understand the tragedienne living beyond the wincing prose and words of woe. Jennifer Jason Leigh's portrayal divided the critics in 1994, yet she's definitely on to something special here. With a more incisive treatment, she may have delivered a true triumph. **1/2 from ****

Jennifer Jason Leigh is Dorothy Parker in "Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle," a 1994 film also starring Campbell Scott, Peter Gallagher, Stanley Tucci, Matthew Broderick, Gwenyth Paltrow, Jennifer Beals, Lili Taylor, Martha Plimpton, Wallace Shawn - a large, excellent cast which would be needed to tell the story of the glittering literary geniuses who were part of the Algonquin Roundtable. Oh, to have been an adult in those days ('20s-'40s) when wit and education and intelligence were so prized! Parker, a unique talent who could write with pathos and humor, was surrounded by the likes of Robert Benchley, Edna Ferber, Charles Macarthur, Alexander Woolcott, Deems Taylor and Robert Sherwood. The sad thing is that if you're a young person and you happen to catch this film on the IFC channel, you won't have heard of any of these people. Nor will you be interested enough to look them up. People don't seem to have the intellectual curiosity they once did. I realize these are generalizations - just how general remains to be seen.

The atmosphere is set wonderfully in this film, which tells something of Dorothy Parker's sad life as she finds and loses love. Unfortunately, with possibly the exception of Campbell Scott as Benchley and at times Ms. Leigh, everyone is PLAYING Woolcott, MacArthur, etc. It's all a kind of let's pretend instead us showing us real people -- as famous as they all were, they were human beings. The script is uneven; the crazy, frenzied scenes at the Algonquin are the best ones, but we don't know these people well enough to be interested in smaller scenes.

I had the great pleasure of seeing Jason Leigh on Broadway in "Proof" and she was excellent - she is a very fine actress with a broad range. But in her attempt to successfully have all of Dorothy Parker's externals, she's tripped herself up. I unfortunately only understood maybe 40% of what she was saying. Not only do I doubt that was true of the real Dorothy, I also doubt going that far with the voice was necessary - very, very few people who would see this film ever heard Dorothy Parker speak. It's a little like doing Eliza Doolittle - if you actually spoke pure Cockney, the audience wouldn't understand a word. Parker's droll tones channeled through Leigh's mouth don't work. She does, however, create a very real and very sad person who lived in an interesting time, wrote about it and who loved and drank her way through it.

A couple of years ago, I visited Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum in Manhattan, where several representatives from the Algonquin Circle were "meeting." It is absolutely remarkable how much the real Mrs. Parker resembled Jennifer Jason Lee, and Lee does a fine job in the role. The real stand out in this huge ensemble cast (which includes Matthew Broderick, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Jennifer Beals) is Campbell Scott, simply remarkable as Robert Benchley.

The movie itself is uneven. Early on, we see Parker and Benchley in Hollywood in the 1940s, where they are cordial at best, and then a flashback to Algonquin Circle days (the 1920s) begins. We naturally expect to find the root of the estrangement, as the entire construction screams that "something happened." But the movie doesn't deliver on its promise; we see a complex and tender relationship, but we never see what "happened" that would prevent them to continue in their fond dance of never-quite-romance. Despite its failure to provide a denouement, this relationship is the soul of the movie and very much worth seeing.

Otherwise, Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle barely rises above the typical tortured artist story. Mrs. Parker was brilliant but unfulfilled. Mrs. Parker drank and attempted suicide. Mrs. Parker recites her own poetry into the camera. Yadda yadda. By the end, Mrs. Parker totters and slurs to such an extent that one wonders if this can possibly be true, it seems a parody. My sense is of a script that veered away from its own fulfillment, and wanders around the outside. 7/10

This film represents the best of both worlds in two sets of sometimes opposing criteria.

First, in terms of movies overall, I'd say this is one of my favorites technically/artistically. The sets were great, the acting was great (especially Leigh and Scott, one of my favorite on-screen Romance-That-Never-Was duos, like Fiennes and Blanchett in "Oscar And Lucinda.").

But this is also one of my favorites in terms of enjoyment. I watch it for the scenes I love, and the mood it sets. I will probably not tire of watching and rewatching this film for a long time to come.

Second, in terms of Biopics, this also rates highly. It had enough accuracy/realism to make it a good bio, and enough drama and flare to make it a good pic. A rare combination. I'd say "13 Days" also did that feat well.

Dorothy Parker was certainly a character and a witty writer, but the lives of writers are typically hard to film for obvious reasons. This movie does an adequate job and Jennifer Jason Leigh turns in the best possible performance (as we've come to expect from her). The script and the other characterizations are a bit thin but this movie is definitely worth it of you happen to be a Parker fan. Men don't make passes...

This movie is a terrible mess. Jennifer Jason Leigh slurs her speech throughout. Incomprehensible. There are too many characters - how are we supposed to know who is who and who wrote what? Bad presentation. The flashbacks are confusing.

A waste of an interesting subject.

From what I have read of and about Dorothy Parker, she was a paradoxically sad person. A woman that seemed to long for true love but seemed to keep everyone at a safe distance. She seemed to use her cutting wit and great appetite for booze, as a defence against any possible close personal relationship with her friends and peers. The only men in her life were equally committed to keeping their distance and control. This movie captured those feelings and relationships with great acuity. Jennifer Jason Leigh was superb as Dorothy. In fact, all of the actors were fantastic. This film isn't for the crowd that, throng to the next Lethal Weapon sequel in ever growing numbers. Those of you that look for movies with intelligence and style will be greatly rewarded.

This is a fine movie about a sad writer. It is filmatically fine and above average. Jennifer Jason Leigh is a fine fricken actress.Jennifer's dad, Vic Morrow, of course was killed by a helicopter.Not a helicopter accident. A helicopter killed Vic Morrow by impacting his head with a helicopter blade. This may have cast a sad shadow on her life and intellect. Just my opinion. This is more a movie about Jennifer Jason Leigh's acting than Dorothy Parker.You should watch it as a tutorial on fine acting by a female. You should just breathe in the lovely technique of JJLeigh.She just manifests ordinary sadness amidst Parker's brightness. This movie inserts sepia-like poems *by Dorothy* into this biography and does so, well. The movie tracks the life and times of a certain Dorothy, who doesn't find the rainbow, or Oz.This Dorothy,Parker, ain't quite a poet but her movie is a thrilling and saddening biography. Dorothy Parker wasn't quite a poet I feel because she didn't 'make/write the grand sweep of poetry'. Who am I too judge you ask? Well, Parker writes clever doggerel not poetry. I suspect she may have had the anti-poetry affliction. Kinda like ripping off the derailleurs on your ten-speed bike old girl.Just my opinion. If Dorothy wanted to be a poet, p'raps she coulda opened up the full throttle engine of language of pentameter and hexameter and tetrameter--of glorious Shakespearian good stuff-which English provides. I suspect Dorothy thought she had to be cute or post-modern or whatever in order to be considered a 'real poet'. Just a guess on my part. A poet writes the f**k out of the language in order to discover the true truth of a language. Language, at least in Western culture, has all kinds of meter in it-naturally occurring. Parker was a reductionist- or what I call 'cheap with words'. When can a writer be cheap with words? Answer: Never. Jack Kerouac rolled a giant roll of paper into his remington-rand to complete his major work of writing. Moving along. Campbell Scott is pretty fine here as Robert Benchley. Jennifer Beals is wasted as the Forlorn Wife. This is a fine movie about empty people of great promise. Did I really just write that?

As a bio of the witty writer Dorothy Parker, this film is a dud. We have JENNIFER JASON LEIGH, correctly attired in period costume and hairdo, but rattling about in scenes of overlapping dialog and barely discernible comments being muttered by her under her breath. A striking performance? I don't think so. Leigh strikes out here, just as she struck out when she attempted to win plaudits for her Catherine Sloper in WASHINGTON SQUARE.

Nice period atmosphere, sets, costumes and music can't make up for an utterly aimless script that is as empty as the babble going on among the sophisticated literate circle Parker was a part of. She gets some nice support from a cast of competent players but since the whole film depends on understanding what makes Parker tick, it's got to be called a failure.

Parker deserved better than this. Hopefully, some day someone with a sense of how to bring her to life will do so with a script that can make us sympathize with the characterization instead of the sketchy view we get here. Nor does it help that few of the characters bear any physical resemblance to the people they're portraying. Did they know what Robert Benchley looked like?

Since watching this film I have picked up a biography of Dorothy Parker as well as a book of her verse, that is how fascinating I find her to be. Not only her, but the performance of Jennifer Jason Leigh as well, though many have criticized her voice, I didn't find it out of place at all. The film involves us in her life in the 20's, when she was a theater critic for Vanity Fair. Throughout the film are celebrities of the time, Robert Benchley, Alexander Woolcott, Howard Ross, Charles McArthur. The cast is first-rate, particularly Campbell Scott. It is a very quotable movie, full of venomous one-liners, most courtesy of Mrs. Parker. One can certainly admire her spirit to persevere and excel in a world dominated by men. It is helpful to know the members of the Round Table, but isn't necessary in order to enjoy the movie.

I am probably not the right person to review"Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle" because I know nothing about the Algonquin Circle, or any of the people who made it up. But how many people do? Even in '94, when the movie was released, I wonder how many people were familiar with this very specific time and place.

I suppose you have to hand it to the filmmakers that they recreated this "circle" without much of a nod to all the people who didn't really know them going into the theatre, and, truth be told, probably won't feel like they know them any better going out. Most of the members are indistinguishable.

Parker was famous for her wit, but the movie really doesn't give you many examples of it. Nor does it exemplify the wit of the circle members. They just seem weird. Quirky, but not in a funny way. More just tiresome. I don't think I would have wanted to pal around with them.

The movie is probably at its best when it shows Parker's inevitable descent into alcoholism and mental illness. That doesn't happen until quite late, though. The movie mostly sees Parker as a part of the circle, not really showing what made her the stand out.

"Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle" is a well done, well acted, portrait of people I didn't find particularly interesting. It taxed me, but I stuck with it. I can't recommend it to anyone who isn't familiar with at least most of the members of this "circle".

If you're going to write a script about real people and a real era, you should be diligent in making it realistic as possible. The script writer, who was also the director didn't seem to do either.

Rudolph's script comes across as someone has no self knowledge that they're the most annoying person in the room where in their own mind, they believe themselves to be witty and charming.

Perhaps a better director could have extracted better performances out of Gary Basaraba & Tom McGowan but I doubt it. They can't rise above the material where the rest of the cast has the talent to try.

This is a great example of having a great idea and a mostly talented cast but the execution is poor.

While the performances and the writing are technically good, the overall impression is that of a lack of affect -- nobody in this movie really seems to care much of anything about anything. The only glimpses we have of Dorothy Parker (and slim glimpses they are) as anything but a sadly underestimated party girl are in her poetic interstices. Perhaps that's the point, but if so, it's lost in an Altmanesque whirl of cameos. The title accomplishes more to drive the theme than the whole of the movie; for me, that's a sign the movie just -might- have been better made.

This movie gave a very revealing account of Dorothy Parker and her rapport with the denizens of the Algonquin Round Table. Done in flashback, this movie is easy on the psyche and filled with ascerbic darts that are bounced among the members of the Round Table. One could feel the pain felt by Mrs. Parker as she fights to survive as a writer, and a person, searches for a meaning to life, and wonders why true love is as elusive as masterpiece poetry and short stories roll from her pen.

This attempt recalls the old Judy Garland/Mickey Rooney films, where

they all decided to "put on a show!!" and wore their parents clothes and

their mom did the make up and it was a big hit! I kid, but just barely.

An interesting failure, rent this to see lots of 80's actors playing

dress up and saying witty bon-mots as though they understood them.

Jennifer Jason Leigh, normally a fine actress, puts on an accent that

just about brings down the film. I've heard tapes of Dorothy Parker, and

she sounds nothing like this. Campbell Scott is fine, as always, as are

a few of the smaller roles, but overall this is an awkward attempt at

playing grown up. Read Mrs. Parkers books, save yourself a bad

time.......

This is not a great movie, but it is a good one, with an excellent ensemble cast and good production values. The fact that a lot of the best lines were written or spoken by the people being portrayed here is a plus and an advantage that this movie has over most others. On the downside, it is too long, the accent affected by Leigh as Dorothy Parker becomes grating at times and the film is a black hole of despair. The documentary, The Ten Year Lunch, about these same people, is equally fascinating, without being nearly so despondent. Perhaps if they ever do a DVD for this, they'll include the documentary as an extra. Recommended for those interested in the subject.

I have admired Dorothy Parker's work for many years and always found her persona to be fascinating. If someone had told me that it was possible to make a boring film about this lady, I would have disagreed. Sad to say, I would have been wrong. Last night I sat through the entire film, waiting—i vain—for are deeming moment. The script was a hopeless muddle, the acting was strenuous, the music went from bland to annoying, and the direction perfectly complemented these flaws. The only thing this wreck of a film has going for it is the costume design.

Dorothy Parker's life deserves a film treatment, but this failed attempt will probably prevent that from happening any time soon, if ever. What a shame!

Chris Albertson

I found this movie totally enjoyable from start to finish. Maybe because Jennifer Jason Leigh is one of the most superb actresses of our time (and of course ignored!!!). Or maybe because I love period pieces with lavish attention to detail in the costumes and production designing. Or maybe because I am always entertained by true stories of humanity. I think in this movie's case, it is all three. This is another portrait of the dark side of fame. Leigh did a wonderful job being Mrs. Dorothy Parker, a 1920s poet and magazine writer who drank (during prohibition New York) and caroused with a large, mouthy group of professionals in the writing and stage business. It's easy for anyone to relate to the lonliness Mrs. Parker feels in this boisterous "circle" of shallow, back-stabbing people. In spite of her gift for smooth, haunting, beautiful poetry (much of it recited in this movie), Mrs. Parker is not happy or fulfilled. Rather she is misunderstood, isolated and self-depreciating. She ends up losing a job over salary disputes, losing her husband to alcohol, and falling deeply and hopelessly in love with the married Charles McArthur (Matthew Broderick), who impregnates and betrays her. Mrs. Parker's only comfort in life is the friendship she has with Bob Benchley (an excellent Campbell Scott). Leigh, speaking with a facinating accent, brings sadness and cynicism to Mrs Parker with perfection.