Oscar Got It Wrong!: Best Actress 1990

The Contenders:

Anjelica Huston: The Grifters
Kathy Bates: Misery (winner)
Joanne Woodward: Mr. and Mrs. Bridge
Meryl Streep: Postcards from the Edge
Julia Roberts: Pretty Woman

Mother and Daughter

Film: Postcards from the edge
Format: ThisTV Chicago on rockin’ flatscreen.

Right around the time she was in Terms of Endearment Shirley MacLaine began a string of films in which her defining character trait was to be as intensely annoying and self-absorbed as possible. This is a role she seems to have perfected by the time she got to her supporting role in Postcards from the Edge. Fortunately, she’s only in a supporting role here and we spend the bulk of our time with the incomparable Meryl Streep. Unfortunately, it’s a major supporting role, so we’ll still be spending a great deal of time watching Shirley MacLaine essentially play the same character she has over and over yet again.

Postcards from the Edge is based on Carrie Fisher’s semi-autobiographical novel of the same name. The book (which I haven’t read—I’m reporting what I’ve heard here) is about drug addiction, the movie industry, and the relationship between a drug-addicted actress living in the shadow of her ridiculously famous mother. Fisher is the daughter of Debbie Reynolds and also had a drug addiction issue. So there are certainly parallels here between her real life and the film. However, that’s not really important in judging the film itself.