Alicia I love this movie so much

GamerTab That was an excellent one.

Reptileenbu Did you people see the same film I saw?

Cheryl A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

cinephile-27690 I was abused at age 14 so I understand what Christina goes through. She gets hit with a wire hanger, spanked, choked, fed uncovered food, etc. Some hated this movie for a unknown to be true account of Joan Crawford, but I still think it's a great movie. It's a hard movie to watch but it should be seen. Retro Plex plays it occasionally. I think it's worth seeing.

Stephen Bird Despite "Mommie Dearest" being around for nearly a decade before I was born, I have only just now got round to watching it, and despite all the negativity surrounding the film, the leading lady Faye Dunaway disowning herself from the film, the film picking up the main prize at the Golden Raspberry awards, I actually found it to be quite charming. Indeed I must see something no one else can, as I thought "Mommie Dearest" was an awesome, powerfully moving retelling of the life of Joan Crawford and the upbringing of her two adopted children. Before watching this film, I knew very little about Joan Crawford, now I feel I've been inspired to go out and watch as many of her films as I can, it's gripped me like not many films can. The way the hair and makeup department managed to get Dunaway to look like Crawford as well as they did is pretty impressive, top marks for them..., and despite not actually being there to see whether the film and the sets are faithful to real life, it really does look legit, amazing-amazing truly.The acting is dazzling and hits you where it counts, astounding display of emotion that runs deeply throughout the duration of the film and never lets go for a single heartbeat, it hooks you immediately and refuses to relinquish its powerful grasp. I am shocked and appalled at how much bad press "Mommie Dearest" has received over the years, completely unjust and horrifically unfair, what do people really want huh? It's a good old film depicting the life and times of a good old actress, maybe the actress wasn't exactly good herself, but the film certainly is. My advice is ignore the reviews, ignore the press, and just sit down and enjoy a very stylish and exciting film, people who moan about it don't know what they're missing, for shame.

Martin Bradley The movie may be a camp classic, ("Christina, bring me the axe"; "No wire hangers...EVER!"), and it is terrible but who can deny Faye Dunaway's tour-de-force. She may not always look that much like Crawford, (Dunaway never looked like anyone other than Dunaway), but her performance goes way beyond mimicry. I have no idea how true any of it is; we have to take Christina's word for it but we don't have to rely on this to know just how tough a cookie, (and how big a bitch?), Joan actually was and Joan certainly gets into her skin. Unfortunately the movie never aims high enough and we are very much in "Valley of the Dolls" territory here. Four writers may have been two or three too many and the director Frank Perry was probably not the right man for this kind of material. Still, he managed to get a couple of remarkable performances from his two Christinas, (Diana Scarwid and 10 year old Mara Hobel), though the men, especially Steve Forrest, are mostly terrible. It certainly enjoyable both as a piece of over-the-top trash and as an example of a very fine actress going a long way to making a silk purse out of a sow's ear. It's also a classic cult movie.

Manhattan William I'm not going to try to out-clever what's already been said about Mommie Dearest. I'm going to simply state the reasons why it's such a great film. At the top of the attributes is the name Faye Dunaway. As Andy Warhol said after watching this film, "if that's not acting what is?!" She IS Joan. They are officially one-in-the-same. The soul of Joan entered Faye's body on the day that the makeup was first applied to Faye's face. All the acting, in fact, is spot-on. Then we have the script. There are so many quotable moments to this film that one might as well just read the entire script - it's a non-stop quotable feast. The sets are gorgeous and I still claim that "the most beautiful house in Brentwood" set is one the greatest ever. Who can forget those crushed blue velvet sofas and that white bar? The STAIRCASE! The tree in the living room, accomplice in covering up so much "dirt"! How about the costumes? The gowns are spectacular. I could go on and on and on. In the DVD commentary Frank Yablans indicates that the director Frank Perry could have pulled Joan back a bit during the "bring me the axe" scene. I ask the simple question: WHY PULL HER BACK?! At the end of the day film is meant to entertain. That means many different things to many different people. In my case, this film entertains in spades and that is enough to merit a high rating in my book. You don't like Mommie Dearest? You're most likely a very sour person!