Postcards from the Edge (1990)

Thrust into the spotlight of fame after donning two Chelsea Buns on either side of her head in the first Star Wars movie, Carrie Fisher (the daughter of the great Debbie Reynolds and singer Eddie Fisher) became a casualty of her own fame as she spiralled into a drugged up haze. But our favourite chained up, sci-fi, bikini girl would go on to pen her struggles as an accomplished author and screenwriter, and Postcards from the Edge is an adaptation of her semi-autobiographical novel of the same name.

So when you are going to make a movie about a Hollywood mother and daughter, each of whom are legends in their own right, you have two of the most coveted roles in Hollywood at the time, roles that were reportedly sought after great actresses including mother and daughter acting royalty Janet Leigh and Jamie Lee Curtis. 

But into these roles step two other legends of the silver screen, namely Shirley MacLaine and Meryl Streep...

This is Meryl Streep in yet another Academy Award nominated role, and while she is great in the movie, comical and serious as her character faces a floundering career and drug-addiction, you cannot help but feel that Shirley MacLaine loses out. By now I have expressed my opinions on the genius that is Meryl Streep, but it really is Shirley who offers the real entertainment in this movie and should have earned an Oscar nod for her hysterical portrayal of the Hollywood mother from somewhere like a personal Hell. 

I wonder, was it because Meryl sang in the movie that people went Wow? Because when Shirley sings in the same movie, even though she is known for those chops, it still is pretty Wow on an even grander scale! That said, neither performance would have actually been possible without the other.

This is all pretty much the gist of the movie, except to say it is an enjoyable movie, set in the Hollywood landscape, with humorous moments of movie magic playing tricks on viewers, who are watching a movie, based in a movie where a movie is being made, loosely based in the actual world of movie making. 

Somehow though, the movie loses itself, as you cannot help but feel that there was more to be harnessed and said in terms of Carrie Fisher (and therefore the character based on her)'s struggles with drugs and with career - instead, and this is not to take away from brilliant performances throughout, the soul of the movie shifts focus to a little area of melodrama ultimately about the mommy daughter dynamic, that still could have been explored alongside aspects which could have been easily within the tone, but with a more serious and poignant point of view.

Entertaining, for somewhat of a chick flick.

Postcards from the Edge is the 1st movie watched from the 63rd Academy Awards and the 35th Academy Award nominated movie watched since I started this blog - still think that there must have been better performances than Meryl's, in fact I seem to remember (as this was the year Whoopi won) a particularly great performance from 1990 by a certain Demi Moore... just saying...

nuff said...