I'll stand by my original review, as I walked out of a theater in NYC when I was 21-years old, after watching this film in 1982. I recall as if yesterday, my sister asked, "What did you think?" I was actually angry..since I'd practically memorized the books,"Shadowlands" as well as Frances Farmer's own 'autobiography' (which has since been largely-credited to have been written by her partner, Jean Ratcliffe). I replied, "Frances Farmer spent her whole career, fighting against the phoniness of Hollywood--and this film is an insult to her memory-- since hardly ANY of this ever happened!" Jessica Lange doubtlessly gives a stunning performance. But WHY ALL THE LIES? The completely made-up character played by Sam Shepard, "Harry York," was created out of whole-cloth. The whole POINT of Frances Farmer's "real life" was that she had no one on her side! Why did they add this "romantic interest," who keeps popping up, out of nowhere, whenever Frances needs a friend? It's ludicrous and completely taints this essentially false film. As if the Frances Farmer story, itself, wasn't dramatic enough?! The script, in fact, is remarkably poor (one of the credited writers is the son of Elia Kazan, too). They add all these false notes that never happened--yet they leave out actual moments from Farmer's life (such as how she picked up an inkwell and threw it at the judge of her trial) which WOULD have added drama to the story. There are some glaringly shoddy performances, too (a completely-overacted performance by the guy who plays the fictionalized version of Frances' actual husband, Leif Ericson, "Dick Steele"--he's allowed to sail straight over the top, making a meal out of the scenery in his only real scene). And, sorry, but I think Kim Stanley's ham-bone performance as Mother Lillian is pretty false, too (though, full-disclosure: I don't really like her in anything). The direction by first-time director, Australian Graeme Clifford, is sloppy and strikes false notes at nearly every turn.
But back to Jessica Lange: In certain shots, it is uncanny how she physically resembles Frances Farmer. She's often said that she felt as if Farmer actually "inhabited" her while making this film. I only wish she'd had the clout when making this film to rail against bad writing like Frances Farmer did, against the writers of a third-rate scripts like this...to get the quality bio-pic Farmer deserves.
But back to Jessica Lange: In certain shots, it is uncanny how she physically resembles Frances Farmer. She's often said that she felt as if Farmer actually "inhabited" her while making this film. I only wish she'd had the clout when making this film to rail against bad writing like Frances Farmer did, against the writers of a third-rate scripts like this...to get the quality bio-pic Farmer deserves.