Review of Imitation of Life (1959) by Greg D — 02 Apr 2012

This film seemed like a contemporary soap opera compacted into 125 minutes. There are racial conflicts, mother-daughter conflicts, mother-daughter-same love interest conflicts, life and death conflicts, and on and on.

It is a lot to handle. Yet, credit to Sirk for somewhat controlling the unbelievable amount of melodrama in this film over the course of a decade or so. You do feel sympathy for Annie because her daughter rejects her for being black while the daughter herself passes for white because of her light skin but is actually black.

And you do feel sympathy for Susie because her mother rises to fame and has no time for her daughter anymore. This is a film that attempts to tackle several social issues and my complaint is just that.

There is way too many for one film to take on. You watch a Sidney Poitier film that tackles racial issues straight on and they are usually effective (Look Who's Coming To Dinner, Edge of the City, etc.

). With so many conflicts in one film, some of the drama gets lost. Susie falling for the man that her mother loves is only presented toward the end of the film even though you could tell Susie and the man have had a strong relationship for a long time.

The film ends rather abruptly for me with the death of Anna. For a film that is character driven, it would be nice to see where Susie and Sara Jane wind up after Sara Jane's mother, Annie, dies. Annie is not the main, main character.

Susie's mother Lora is. Will Sara Jane return home? Will Susie come back from college? I don't mind ambiguous endings in non-character driven films but for a melodrama some certainty would be nice.