Postcards from the Edge, screenplay by Carrie Fisher, based on her book - 9 out of 10

Postcards from the Edge, screenplay by Carrie Fisher, based on her book
9 out of 10


When you have Meryl Streep in the leading role, you know that the film would be a minimum very good and chances are it would actually be memorable.

For Postcards from the Edge we have other phenomenal ingredients:
The director, Mike Nichols, is a fabulous artist and the cast is incredible, we only have to mention:

The legendary Shirley MacLaine, a glorious actor that is one my favorites, Gene Hackman, Richard Dreyfuss, Annette Bening and Dennis Quaid.

It could not be any better!

Meryl Streep portrays Suzanne Vale, an actress that has had serious problems with her addiction, given the number of stars that have experienced this issue and even died as a result, the central idea for the plot is both relevant and educational to a large extent.
Because the studios do not want to deal with the complications, indeed, potential calamities resulting from a drug problem, which could jeopardize the making of a movie, they have banned the heroine, more or less.

She is given a chance, but with strings attached.
First of all, she has to live with...her mother!

And Doris Mann aka the adorable Shirley MacLaine. - who has gone to the extreme of using make up to show her in an awful light, while she is sick in hospital- is a very tough cookie.
Actually, in a scene where they fight, we learn that when Suzanne was a child, her mother gave her pills to sleep and it is not even leaf if they were prescribed or just given on a whim.

It does not even matter if a foolish doctor would suggest such a monstrosity and even if Doris denies her role in creating at least the conditions for her daughter's misfortune, I would say that she definitely played a major role.
As a "role model", Doris Mann was actually a heavy drinker and she has been doing very embarrassing- if rather amusing for the audience- things.

She has made her child feel awful with her penchant for extravagant behavior, lurid at times, dancing with lascivious movements, even exposing her body, under the skirt, as she wore no underwear!
As Suzanne arrives on the set of the film where she would be a police woman, executives from the studio approach her.

They talk about some irrelevant matters and the they mention the insurance company and the fact that they need...a sample.
Because they would not accept to insure her without that...

Blood or urine? Asks the resigned star
Urine would be fine and an assistant would come.

The heroine seems to have found a way to happiness, especially after she meets the dashing Jack Faulkner aka Dennis Quaid and they start a tumultuous, if problematic relationship.
The seducing, effusive, expansive young man declares he loves Suzanne. She is elated, enthusiastic about it.

Up to moment when the actress talks with Evelyn Ames, portrayed by the mesmerizing Annette Bening.
The latter explains, reveals the real Jack Faulkner.

This Cassanova is telling almost all women about the same thing.
It is both sad and jocular to hear Evelyn comforting Suzanne to some extent by insisting on the very few things which were different and stating that since he did a few things that are not for the masses, so to say, this means that he must think she is special...to some extent.

Otherwise, the paraphernalia seems to be the same.
You smell like the Catarina island - or something similar- and other cliches have been used on the heroine and a multitude of other partners.

Cherry on top, when he was telling Suzanne that he loves her, he was getting ready for sex in the same afternoon with someone else.
Which brings to mind a character from a short story by Thomas Mann.

This personage was outraged by the people who keep saying:

I love you so much, the are no words to express that!
That is absolute nonsense!

The character explains that the word love means something we do not really find in real life.
Figures in poems, novels love, but not humans.

It could be an exaggeration, but amusing heroes like Jack Faulkner do make one wonder how easy it is to say something which is meaningless.

This comedy is also a drama an a remarkable, wonderful motion picture.