Review of Mommie Dearest (1981) by Stephanie M — 07 Aug 2009

Joan Crawford: you fear her, but you also kind of wanna be her as well. She is, was, and always will be the quintessential star of Hollywood. How else could a woman who really only starred in two (Mildred Pierce, Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?) honest to goodness masterpieces managed to still be revered and loved well into 2009? There's so much to look in horror at- but also something to respect in how she could command things of people and demand so much- and get it. (And ironically enough dissed woman's lib).

I think most people miss the point in this movie. Joan is not the enemy, Christina is not the enemy. They truly were mother and daughter, cut from the same damn cloth. I've always kind of suspected the truth of their situation was somewhere in the middle. It's quite clear in this movie that Christina is every bit the selfish spoiled petulant child most people branded her after her salacious tell-all came out but it's also quite clear that Joan was no saint, and really did suffer from some mental instability. It's interesting looking at this story from a completely subjective viewpoint: a lot of the things Joan did to "torture" Christina were REALLY NOT THAT AWFUL. I mean, making her give away a lot of her birthday presents to poor kids? (considering most of the gifts she got were more of a suck up to mom) Not really that unreasonable when she had so much already. Not giving her money as a grown woman all the time? Not so unreasonable given how much she championed self-sufficiency. Being mad that her getting caught in a scandalous position with a boy got her kicked out of a nice boarding school? Really not that unreasonable. What's fascinating is seeing how in Tina's mind these things got blown so out of proportion that she saw them as "just another horrid thing Mommie Dearest" did.

Now, don't get me wrong, this movie does have it's so-bad-it's-good moments. The girl playing Tina (both as a child and adult) is obscenely horrible- but that's kind of where the genius comes in- because she's SUPPOSED to come off bratty and annoying. And yes, we all know the "no more wire hangers!!!" scene by heart. But really, that stuff only makes it better.

A lot of people whine that this movie is over-the-top... lemme explain something to you: if you have been around anyone with any kind of mental instability (be it OCD or bi-polar- which most people will readily admit Crawford suffered from obscenely untreated and unhelped by an on-again off-again alcohol problem) you will understand that this is 100% on the money. It really truly is.

I implore people to look past the exploitative aspects of the movie and see it for what it truly is saying: this mother and daughter truly were made for each other and their own worst enemies. This is probably the least glamorized, least romanticized and most complicated-ly real mother-daughter relationship ever put on screen. Guess what duckies? Not everyone's mom/daughter relationship is manies and cosmos for lunch followed by shopping and chit chat about your lives. In real life sometimes it's a ton more complex and this movie really lets that loose.