Amazon.com Essentials:
As its title might suggest, this movie
based on Carrie Fisher's Hollywood struggle works better as a snapshot
than as a complete film. Meryl Streep plays Suzanne Vale, a successful
actress who is lost in her addictions. Her episodes are never as
bombastic as Clean and Sober or other antidrug movies of the
1990s, however. Vale's a more lovable person, and as with all lovable
people in Hollywood, other Hollywood people care for her: an
understanding director (Gene Hackman), a philandering boyfriend
(Dennis Quaid), and a bemused doctor (Richard Dreyfuss). But if you
are going to talk about Fisher, you are going to mention her mom,
Debbie Reynolds. And here Vale's mom is the die-hard Doris Mann,
played with appropriate virtuosity by Shirley MacLaine. The love-hate
mother-daughter relationship takes over the film in an entertaining
way, with Fisher's sharp comic writing coming into play. You nearly
forgive Vale's troubles for having to live under a hurricane like Mann
(who goes into her nightclub act at the drop of a hat). The film's
sweetest pleasure is seeing Streep loose and modern, nary a drab
outfit or an accent in sight. Streep and director Mike Nichols make a
risky--and rewarding--finale (fueled by the Oscar-nominated "I'm
Checking Out" by Shel Silverstein) work effortlessly. --Doug
Thomas
