Postcards from the Edge
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Postcards From the Edge
Plot
Mike Nichols lends some comic structure to Carrie Fisher's best-selling confessional novel concerning a woman's struggles with drug addiction and mother-daughter rivalry (subjects Fisher admits to understanding all too well). Meryl Streep, in her most full-blown comic performance up to that point, plays Suzanne Vale, a popular movie actress well on her way to a Hollywood crack-up. Suzanne suffers from blackouts and memory lapses, and awakens in the beds of men she doesn't remember; she is a barely-functioning wreck on the set of her latest movie. When a coke dealer who delivers stops by her dressing room between takes, she swiftly finds herself being rushed to the hospital, suffering the effects of a narcotics bender. While in detox, Suzanne attempts to piece her life and career back together, but her confidence is shattered when her mother arrives at the rehab clinic -- Doris Mann, a famed film icon from the 1950s and 1960s (Shirley MacLaine). Doris is soon soaking up the adulation and applause of Suzanne's fellow recovering drug addicts. Upon Suzanne's release, she must compete with her mother for attention and fame as she tries to walk a thin line as a recovering drug abuser. ~ Paul Brenner, RoviReview
With her wickedly funny adaptation of Postcards from the Edge from her own semi-autobiographical novel, Carrie Fisher proved that she was more than an actress most famous for battling space thugs in a chain-mail bikini. And with her performance in Postcards from the Edge, Meryl Streep proved herself exquisitely capable of all-out comic work, imbuing her character with dry wit and caustic insecurity. Although Postcards is perhaps most memorable for both Fisher's and Streep's work, it is also a successfully realized comedy-satire that functions as both a comedy about mother-daughter relationships and a satire of Hollywood in all its dysfunctional glory. Director Mike Nichols staged one of the decade's best casting coups, starring Shirley MacLaine and Streep opposite each other as the constantly bickering but ultimately caring mother and daughter, loosely based on Fisher and her own mother, Debbie Reynolds. Saved from brattiness by Fisher's intelligence and humor, Postcards is whip-smart fun, causing as many gasps as laughs. ~ Rebecca Flint Marx, RoviCast
- Meryl Streep - Suzanne Vale
- Shirley MacLaine - Doris Mann
- Dennis Quaid - Jack Falkner
- Gene Hackman - Lowell
- Richard Dreyfuss - Dr. Frankenthal
- Rob Reiner - Joe Pierce
Credit
Kandy Stern - Art Director, Susan MacNair - Associate Producer, John Calley - Co-producer, Mike Nichols - Co-producer, Ann Roth - Costume Designer, Mike Nichols - Director, Sam O'Steen - Editor, Howard Shore - Composer (Music Score), Shel Silverstein - Composer (Music Score), Carly Simon - Composer (Music Score), Howard Shore - Musical Direction/Supervision, Paul Shaffer - Songwriter, Shel Silverstein - Songwriter, Stephen Sondheim - Songwriter, Cindy Walker - Songwriter, J. Roy Helland - Makeup, Patrizia Von Brandenstein - Production Designer, Michael Ballhaus - Cinematographer, Robert Greenhut - Producer, Neil Machlis - Producer, Chris A. Butler - Set Designer, Carrie Fisher - Screenwriter, Gilda Radner - Featured Music, Cole Porter - Featured Music, Eddy Arnold - Featured Music, Carrie Fisher - Book Author, Gene S. Cantamessa - Production Sound Mixer| Postcards From Tora Bora (2007 Film), Postcards From The Future (2007 Film) | |
| Postcards from America (1994 Film), Postchi (1972 Film) |
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Postcards from the Edge (film)
| Postcards from the Edge | |
|---|---|
 Original poster |
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| Directed by | Mike Nichols |
| Produced by | John Calley Mike Nichols |
| Written by | Carrie Fisher |
| Starring | Meryl Streep Shirley MacLaine Dennis Quaid Gene Hackman Rob Reiner |
| Music by | Carly Simon |
| Cinematography | Michael Ballhaus |
| Editing by | Sam O'Steen |
| Distributed by | Columbia Pictures |
| Release date(s) |
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| Running time | 101 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Box office | $39,071,603 (US) [1] |
Postcards from the Edge is a 1990 American comedy-drama film directed by Mike Nichols. The screenplay by Carrie Fisher is based on her 1987 semi-autobiographical novel of the same title.
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Contents
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Plot
Actress Suzanne Vale (Meryl Streep) is a recovering drug addict trying to pick up the pieces of her career and get on with her life after being discharged from a rehab center she entered to kick a cocaine-acid-Percodan habit. When she is ready to return to work her agent advises her the studio's insurance policy will cover her only if she lives with a "responsible" individual such as her mother Doris Mann (Shirley MacLaine) who was the reigning musical comedy star of the 1950s and '60s. Suzanne loathes to return to the woman she struggled to escape from for years after growing up in her shadow. The situation is not helped by the fact that Doris is loud, competitive, manipulative, self-absorbed and given to offering her daughter unsolicited advice with insinuating value judgments while treating her like a child.
Unaware that producer Jack Faulkner (Dennis Quaid) is the one who drove her to the hospital during her last overdose, Suzanne agrees to go out with him. During the course of a passionate first date, he professes intense and eternal love for her and she believes every word is true. She learns from Evelyn Ames (Annette Bening), a bit player in her latest film, that Jack is sleeping with Evelyn as well. Still dressed in the costume she wears as a uniformed cop in the schlock movie, Suzanne drives to Jack's house and confronts him. As their argument escalates, Jack implies that Suzanne was much more interesting when she was trying to function while under the influence.
At home, Suzanne learns from Doris that Suzanne's sleazy business manager Marty Wiener has absconded with all her money. This leads to a verbal brawl between the two women, and Suzanne storms out to go to a looping session. There the paternalistic director Lowell Korshack (Gene Hackman) tells her he has more work for her as long as she remains clean and sober.
Suzanne arrives home and discovers that Doris has crashed her car into a tree after drinking too much wine. Suzanne rushes to her hospital bedside where the two have a heart-to-heart talk while Suzanne fixes her mother's makeup and arranges a scarf on her head to conceal the fact she bloodied her wig in the accident. Looking and feeling better, Doris musters her courage and faces the media waiting for her. Suzanne runs into Dr. Frankenthal (Richard Dreyfuss), who had pumped her stomach after her last overdose, and he invites her to see a movie with him. She declines, telling him she's not ready to date yet. Dr. Frankenthal tells her he's willing to wait until she is.
In the film's closing moments Suzanne performs "I'm Checkin' Out", a foot-stomping Country Western number, for a scene in Lowell Korshack's new film.
Production
In discussing adapting the book for the screen director Mike Nichols commented "For quite a long time we pushed pieces around, but then we went with the central story of a mother passing the baton to her daughter." [2] He added "Carrie doesn't draw on her life any more than Flaubert did. It's just that his life wasn't so well known." [2]
Responding to questions about how closely the film's Suzanne/Doris relationship parallels her relationship with her mother, Debbie Reynolds, Carrie Fisher stated "I wrote about a mother actress and a daughter actress. I'm not shocked that people think it's about me and my mother. It's easier for them to think I have no imagination for language, just a tape recorder with endless batteries." [2] In the DVD commentary she notes that her mother wanted to portray Doris but Nichols cast Shirley MacLaine instead.
Blue Rodeo accompanied Meryl Streep on "I'm Checkin' Out" which was written by Shel Silverstein. Other songs performed in the film include "I'm Still Here" by Stephen Sondheim and "You Don't Know Me" by Cindy Walker and Eddy Arnold.
Cast
- Meryl Streep as Suzanne Vale
- Shirley MacLaine as Doris Mann
- Dennis Quaid as Jack Faulkner
- Gene Hackman as Lowell Kolchek
- Richard Dreyfuss as Dr. Frankenthal
- Rob Reiner as Joe Pierce
- Mary Wickes as Grandma
- Conrad Bain as Grandpa
- Annette Bening as Evelyn Ames
- Simon Callow as Simon Asquith
- Gary Morton as Marty Wiener
- C. C. H. Pounder as Julie Marsden
- Robin Bartlett as Aretha
- Barbara Garrick as Carol
- Anthony Heald as George Lazan
- Dana Ivey as Wardrobe Mistress
- Oliver Platt as Neil Bleene
Jerry Orbach filmed a scene as Suzanne's father, as divulged by writer Carrie Fisher in the DVD commentary, however it was cut.
Critical reception
Vincent Canby of the New York Times said the film "seems to have been a terrifically genial collaboration between the writer and the director, Miss Fisher's tale of odd-ball woe being perfect material for Mr. Nichols's particular ability to discover the humane sensibility within the absurd." [3]
Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times observed, "What's disappointing about the movie is that it never really delivers on the subject of recovery from addiction. There are some incomplete, dimly seen, unrealized scenes in the rehab center, and then desultory talk about offscreen AA meetings. But the film is preoccupied with gossip; we're encouraged to wonder how many parallels there are between the Streep and MacLaine characters and their originals, Fisher and Debbie Reynolds... Postcards from the Edge contains too much good writing and too many good performances to be a failure, but its heart is not in the right place." [4]
Hal Hinson of the Washington Post said, "Meryl Streep gives the most fully articulated comic performance of her career, the one she's always hinted at and made us hope for." He felt the film's earlier section was "the movie's best, primarily because Nichols is so focused on Streep. In fact, almost nothing else seems to matter to him... But while Nichols is servicing his star, he lets the other areas of the film go slack... [He] is finely attuned to the natural surreality of a movie set, but when he moves away from the show-biz satire and concentrates on the mother-daughter relationship, the movie falters." [5]
Box office
The film opened in 1,013 theaters in the United States on September 14, 1990 and grossed $7,871,856 on its opening weekend, ranking #1 at the box office.[6] It eventually earned $39,071,603 in the US.[1]
Awards and nominations
- Academy Award for Best Actress (Meryl Streep, nominee)
- Academy Award for Best Song (Shel Silverstein, nominee)
- BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role (Shirley MacLaine, nominee)
- BAFTA Award for Best Adapted Screenplay (Carrie Fisher, nominee)
- BAFTA Award for Best Film Music (Carly Simon, nominee)
- Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy (Meryl Streep, nominee)
- Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture (Shirley MacLaine, nominee)
- Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song (Shel Silverstein, nominee)
- American Comedy Award for Funniest Lead Actress in a Motion Picture (Meryl Streep, winner)
- London Film Critics' Circle Award for Newcomer of the Year (Annette Bening, winner)
American Film Institute recognition:
- AFI's 100 Years... 100 Laughs - Nominated[7]
References
- ^ a b "BoxOfficeMojo.com". BoxOfficeMojo.com. 1990-11-06. http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=postcardsfromtheedge.htm. Retrieved 2011-10-31.
- ^ a b c Dougherty, Margot (1990-09-28). "''Entertainment Weekly'', September 28, 1990". Ew.com. http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,318238,00.html. Retrieved 2011-10-31.
- ^ Canby, Vincent (1990-09-12). "''New York Times'' review". Movies.nytimes.com. http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9C0CEFD8173FF931A2575AC0A966958260. Retrieved 2011-10-31.
- ^ "''Chicago Sun-Times'' review". Rogerebert.suntimes.com. http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/19900912/REVIEWS/9120301/1023. Retrieved 2011-10-31.
- ^ "''Washington Post'' review". Washingtonpost.com. 1990-09-14. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/style/longterm/movies/videos/postcardsfromtheedgerhinson_a0a998.htm. Retrieved 2011-10-31.
- ^ Broeske, Pat H. (1990-09-17). "Postcards Takes No. 1 at Box Office Movies: Mother-daughter comedy sales hit $8.1 million. Paramount's `Ghost' is in second place on $5.8 million in sales.". The Los Angeles Times. http://articles.latimes.com/1990-09-17/entertainment/ca-740_1_ticket-sales. Retrieved 2011-01-01.
- ^ AFI's 100 Years...100 Laughs Nominees
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