Mommie Dearest is the ultimate film adaptation of a warts and all Hollywood tell-all biography. This is Christina Crawford’s account of what Joan Crawford, her mother, was really like, and it is devastating, not only because of its brutal account, but also in contrast to the Hollywood icon-making propaganda machine of the 1950’s.Joan Crawford, according to the film, is a desperate perfectionist whose acting career is ultimately failing after her short-lived success as a young discovery. To boost her public image, she adopts two children, and disaster strikes as she begins to mould them to perform to the same mindnumbing perfectionist standards that she holds for herself. We witness the years of abuse that Christina and her brother were subjected to and their own struggle to stay ‘normal’ in spite of their adoptive mother’s manipulations. We also see through Christina’s eyes, a unflattering picture of her mother consuming and controlling men, so that each relationship is doomed due to her mother’s ambition for her career, and the business success of her leading men. Her mother’s battle with drink, dieting and dirt are highlighted again and again in the dramatic saga. In the end, Christina and her brother are cut off from the family fortune, in a last slap in the face effort for them to understand the need to survive on their own, to rise to fortune from rags as their mother did.Faye Dunaway, stars as Joan Crawford throughout the film, and she is absolutely brilliant in conveying an aging neurotic movie star bent on self-destruction. This is by far the best performance of her career and is definitely worth seeing on that account alone. If you believe Christina Crawford, Mommie Dearest is a devastating, sad portrayal of child abuse, but there are many more levels of irony and hypocrisy to this drama. From Christina’s experiences, we also see a woman coming of age against the odds, and the complexity of human relationships and ambitions against a backdrop of tragedy and fear. If you like biography or the story behind the stars of screen, this is a movie not to be missed.
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