“… Jesus Christ.”

Well, if nothing else, this is an unforgettable experience. I didn’t know much about this movie at all until only recently when a little birdy piqued my interest without so much as even mentioning the stunning young performance by Mara Hobel, who plays the young Christina Crawford for a much larger portion of the movie than I would’ve expected.

If there’s a problem, it’s that though Faye Dunaway is undeniably fascinating in the title role as Joan Crawford, she’s still Faye Dunaway and not Joan Crawford. I don’t know if that quite makes sense to anyone else. The movie opens with a series of shots of fragments of her body and face, and they convey an impression of Crawford that is almost creepily convincing … until the reveal of the face, which belongs to Faye Dunaway. Maybe it’s because I’ve not seen any of Crawford’s movies outside of Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? (not a bad preparation for watching this, incidentally), but I’d count Dunaway as as great a movie star as Crawford … and for me that kind of got in the way somehow.

Henry Mancini’s score is great, as is the actress who plays the older Christina. It’s a little TV-ish … I’m almost inclined to recommend the Shirley Temple biopic I watched recently as a perfect double bill companion, though the two couldn’t be more different in mood. It’s a movie I’ll certainly watch again and probably even add to my DVD collection sometime. It really is perfectly encapsulated by that quote I began with, lol, it’s another I’d really rather just say, “Just see it!” than strain to fill 3 paragraphs over.

Tags: abuse, adoption, alcoholism, biography, cuties, Hollywood

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