Home > Drama >

Postcards from the Edge

Watch Now

Postcards from the Edge (1990)

September. 14,1990
|
6.7
|
R
| Drama Comedy
Watch Now

Substance-addicted Hollywood actress, Suzanne Vale is on the skids. After a spell at a detox centre her film company insists as a condition of continuing to employ her that she live with her mother, herself once a star and now a champion drinker. Such a set-up is bad news for Suzanne who has struggled for years to get out of her mother's shadow, and who still treats her like a child. Despite these and other problems, Suzanne begins to see the funny side of her situation, and also realises that not only do daughters have mothers—mothers do too.

...

Watch Trailer

Cast

Similar titles

Reviews

Micransix
1990/09/14

Crappy film

More
BoardChiri
1990/09/15

Bad Acting and worse Bad Screenplay

More
Nayan Gough
1990/09/16

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

More
Rexanne
1990/09/17

It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

More
arsportsltd
1990/09/18

Shirley MacLaine is only 12 years older than Meryl Streep but played Streep's Movie Star mother -to a fare thee well. Closely resembling the real life story of Debbie Reynolds and her daughter Carrie Fisher this film has lot of inside baseball about Reynolds and Fisher. Ms. Streep is as always brilliant as the tormented "Carrie" and Ms. MacLaine is superb as "Debbie". Liked Gary Morton as the agent. Gene Hackman, Dennis Quaid, Richard Dreyfuss, and Annette Bening give fine support to the Stars. Mary Wickes is priceless as Shirley's Mother much resembling the real Mom of Debbie Reynolds if you read Debbie's book.Mike Nichols deserves credit for brining this story to the screen and even has a great windup with Streep singing over the credits. Is there anything Ms.Streep cannot do?Shirley MacLaine belts out Sondheim's great song of survival "I'm Still Here" and no doubt Shirley MacLaine is still here with over 50 years a Great star working with great Directors such as Wilder, Hitchcock, Wyler, and co star with Eastwood, Lemmon, Sinatra, Bancroft, Newman, Hepburn, Garner, etc, etc. etc.

More
Maddyclassicfilms
1990/09/19

Postcards From The Edge is directed by Mike Nichols,has a screenplay by Carrie Fisher based on her book and stars Meryl Streep, Shirley MacLaine, Gene Hackman, Dennis Quaid and Mary Wicke's.The film is based Carrie Fisher's life and her relationship with her mother Debbie Reynolds.It's a good mix of comedy and sadness with powerful performances especially from Meryl as the insecure actress.Suzanne Vale(Meryl Streep)is one of Hollywoods biggest stars and is on top of the world,there is a snag though she has a drug problem.After taking an overdose her boyfriend Jack Faulkner(Dennis Quaid)rushes her to hospital where her stomach is pumped by Dr Frankenthal(Richard Dreyfuss)who might just be the man she is meant to be in love with.She goes through rehab and gets clean,the root of her addiction lies with her overbearing and demanding mother Doris Mann(Shirley MacLaine).Doris has made her life hell and although she loves her she just can't stop picking at her and driving her further away.The film revolves around Suzanne's struggle to stay off drugs and try and get into a better place emotionally.Her only true friend in all of this is her favourite director Lowell Kolcheck(Gene Hackman)although a bit severe at times he teaches her to be stronger and stand up to her mother and is there when she needs a shoulder to cry on.Deeply moving and featuring some superb performances, Postcards From The Edge is a wonderful film.Meryl also gets to prove her singing skills here and they are very good.

More
James Hitchcock
1990/09/20

"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

More
Bill Slocum
1990/09/21

Luke Skywalker is not the only member of the Star Wars gang with parent issues. Carrie Fisher, the actress who played Princess Leia, channeled hers into a novel that became another winning Mike Nichols domestic comedy, "Postcards From The Edge."Meryl Streep stars as Carrie alter-ego Suzanne Vale, a once-successful actress trying to restart her career after a near-fatal O.D. Her mother, a screen legend in her day named Doris Mann (Shirley MacLaine), happily takes on the responsibility of overseeing Suzanne's recovery, especially given the attendant oversight she gets on daughter's life and career."I really hate that you have to go through this," Doris sighs upon visiting her daughter in the rehab clinic. "I wish I could go through this for you." MacLaine gives, frame for frame, the best performance in the film, one of her best ever. She and Streep seem to feed off the best aspects of each other's prior screen work, Streep picking up on MacLaine's sass and comedic chops, MacLaine on the way Streep can give you a sea of sadness through just a flickering gleam in her eyes.Streep's comedy turn is the big surprise here, especially given how successfully she pulls it off. No dingoes running off with babies in this production. Nichols helps by putting her in situations that are very un-Streepish, like being threatened by cheesy "Scarface" extras or inhaling Fritos. Whatever the props, Meryl herself makes me laugh, something I never expected. Not that she lays back. Her gift for inhabiting others' skin is on fine display, as she gives Suzanne Carrie Fisher's wry intonations and wan half-laugh.You can hear the connection on the DVD commentary; a candid, amusing piece by Fisher in which she explains the background of "Postcards," why she considers it "emotionally autobiographical" in the way it deals with her own past drug issues and especially her relationship with her movie-star mother, Debbie Reynolds. At the same time, it's fictional in many key details.Fisher's clever Hollywood-dream-factory send-up of a script gives MacLaine and Streep plenty of great lines that pop off the screen like cherry bombs. "Instant gratification takes too long," Suzanne whines. "I know you don't take my dreams seriously, even when I predicted your kidney stones," crows Mom.The film does get rather pat in the second half, especially when both bond by rounding on Suzanne's ancient grandmother (Mary Wickes). Given that Suzanne's the central character, and the one with the drug problem, more effort should have been made on exposing her flaws and weaknesses, rather than making her seem the most normal character in the story. Fisher makes this point herself in her commentary, wishing she was "tougher" on Suzanne."Postcards" is most effective when it focuses on the paradox of how these people perform so well in the limelight and so clumsily outside of it. "We're designed more for public than for private," is how Suzanne puts it at one point. Some comments here complain of too many musical numbers, but of course entertaining is what these women live for. Watching Suzanne watch her mother sing "I'm Still Here", realizing for an instant that a throwaway line in the song is really a cry of pain over Suzanne's way of life, and finally responding, silently but in a nakedly emotional way, communicates all you need to know about how much these two people love each other, beneath their banter and blame.Such subtle touches allow Streep, MacLaine, and Nichols to keep the longer dialogues crisp and funny. You may have a hard time understanding the lives these people lead, but you will enjoy their company.

More