Postcards from the Edge **** (1990, Meryl Streep, Shirley MacLaine, Dennis Quaid, Gene Hackman, Richard Dreyfuss, Rob Reiner, Mary Wickes) – Classic Movie Review 10,245

Director Mike Nichols’s 1990 celebrity memoirs movie Postcards from the Edge finds Shirley MacLaine bravely playing an ageing, drinking, domineering Mommie Dearest-type star named Doris Mann and Meryl Streep playing her drug-abusing actress daughter, Suzanne Vale.  Vale’s film company demands she live with her mother as a condition of employing her.

MacLaine and Streep battle it out in Nichols’s highly entertaining film of Carrie Fisher’s semi-autobiographical novel about life in Hollywood’s fast lane. Carrie Fisher also writes the adapted screenplay.

The two women give their most appealing performances in ages in this touching, funny, sharp comedy drama, with a deliriously bleary-eyed view of the movie scene.

Streep was Oscar nominated as Best Actress, and Shel Silverstein was Oscar nominated for Best Original Song for his music and lyrics for the song Meryl sings ‘I’m Checkin’ Out’. The score is by Carly Simon.

MacLaine makes a lovely meal of Stephen Sondheim’s ‘I’m Still Here’.

Also in the cast are Dennis Quaid, Gene Hackman, Richard Dreyfuss, Rob Reiner, Mary Wickes, Conrad Bain, Annette Bening, Simon Callow, Gary Morton, C C H Pounder, Sidney Armus, Robin Bartlett, Barbara Garrick, Michael Ontkean, Oliver Platt, Dana Ivey and Anthony Heald.

It is Streep’s only film with Hackman.

© Derek Winnert 2020 Classic Movie Review 10,245

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