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Click above to purchase "Mommie Dearest" at amazon.com
Mommie Dearest
review by Ren C.
Rated PG
Studio: Paramount
Running Time: 128 minutes
Starring Faye Dunaway
Written by Frank Yablans, Frank Perry, Tracy Hotchner
and Robert Getchell
Based upon the book by Christina Crawford
Directed by Frank Perry
Retail Price: $29.99
Features: Theatrical Trailer, Photo Gallery
Specs: 1.85:1 Anamorphic Widescreen, Dolby Digital
English 5.1, English Mono, English Closed Captions, English
Subtitles, Chapter Search
Released: July 17th, 2001
"Mommie Dearest" is one of those movies that no matter
how hard someone tries can't be squeezed into a genre. When
this movie was first released in 1981, it was marketed as a
straight ahead dramatic movie, with some Oscar buzz even
being generated for Faye Dunaway. However, as people
actually went to see the movie, it started to make that
journey from drama to camp. Watching the movie, it is easy
to see how this jump could be made. While Faye Dunaway is
without question a great actress, there are many points in
this movie where "over the top" is being kind in describing
her performance.
"Mommie Dearest" tells the story of Joan Crawford through
the eyes of her daughter, Christina Crawford from the time
she was adopted until Joan Crawford's death in 1977. This is
absolutely a "warts and all" biography, as Joan Crawford is
made to look like an obsessive-compulsive borderline
psychotic control freak. Over the course of the movie I was
amazed that any child could grow up to even remotely normal
with such a domineering mother, not to mention being in such
an atypical environment. Christina Crawford grew up in the
Hollywood spotlight, with things so personal as birthday
parties and Christmas celebrations being fodder for media
coverage. This is in addition to the fact that Joan Crawford
expected her to be absolutely perfect in every respect.
One of the best examples of this is the infamous wire
hanger scene, where Joan flies off the handle when she
discovers her daughters' dresses hanging on wire hangers.
Time and again, Christina does something minor wrong that
most normal parents wouldn't even notice, and she is
punished severely for it by Joan.
Also covered in the course of the movie is Joan
Crawford's rapidly declining career, with an Academy Award
win for "Mildred Pierce" serving as the only highlight. It
seemed as though every time Crawford's career took a wrong
turn, she would take it out on Christina. The movie struck a
nice balance between career and family life, depicting it in
such a way that leads viewers to believe that Joan Crawford
actually balanced her life in this somewhat haphazard
manner.
I was also very impressed with the acting job of Mara
Hobel, who portrays the young Christina. For a girl that
couldn't have been any older than eight, she gives an acting
job that some veterans would have to reach to portray. One
example of this is at the end of the floor scrubbing scene,
where Hobel puts more emotion into one line than some actors
put into an entire movie. One of the few problems I had with
the movie, however, was the disappearance of Christopher
Crawford, Joan's second adopted child, who seems to drop out
of the movie halfway through and doesn't reappear until
Crawford's funeral. This is understandable, because it is
Christina's story, but some passing explanation as to where
he had gone would have been nice.
Overall, though, the movie serves as a very interesting
look of the self dubbed "queen of Hollywood" during a time
in Hollywood that will more than likely never be recaptured.
For a twenty-year-old movie, the transfer looks slightly
better than it should be expected to, but not by much. The
print suffers from numerous blemishes and flaws that can be
distracting at times, although not distracting enough to
take the viewer out of the movie. While blacks are dark and
rich, some of the daytime scenes seem slightly washed out as
though the colors had faded slightly. Again, not anything
horrible, but slightly distracting.
A new Dolby Digital 5.1 mix has been supplied with this
film, and it makes good use of what is available. Ambient
sounds seem to shine the most here, such as the crashing of
surf at the beach. However, dialogue at some points seems to
be separated, at the expense of being heard clearly. In some
cases, it seems as though dialogue that should be very
audible is almost subconscious, which brings the overall
experience down a few notches. Also supplied with the movie
are mono tracks in English and French, along with English
subtitles and closed captions.
Typical Paramount catalog release here, as the only
features supplied are a photo gallery, which looks to be a
series of publicity stills, and one of the longest
theatrical trailers I have ever seen. This trailer runs
almost four minutes, and manages to encapsulate virtually
the entire movie. While I think that trailers have gotten
worse in the last few years insofar as they give away too
much, the art of constructing the trailer has certainly come
a long way.
"Mommie Dearest" may stand as one of the most scathing
celebrity biopics ever committed to film, and as such
deserves a viewing by any fans of Joan Crawford. This film
also occupies the bizarre middle ground between drama and
camp, so anyone who enjoys both those genres should give
this a look. The movie is, par for the course for Paramount,
steeply priced, and the disc as a whole does not stand up
very well. I give this a recommendation to rent.
 (4/5 - NOT included in
final score)
 (3.5/5)
(3.5/5)
 (.5/5)
 (3/5,
NOT an average)
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