I really wanted to like this movie. I feel terribly cynical trashing it, and that's why I'm giving it a middling 5. Actually, I'm giving it a 5 because there were some superb performances.

While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.

The movie really just wants to entertain people.

Amazing worth wacthing. So good. Biased but well made with many good points.

Director Andrew Bergman was known for slightly off beat comedies such as The Freshman and he could handle big stars known to be difficult such as Marlon Brando.In 'Isn't She Great' Bergman tries but ultimately fails because this fictionalised biography of author Jacqueline Susann is just too stuffy, slushy and sentimentalised when it should had been loud, vulgar and left field.Bette Midler is too restrained as Susann, the period recreation is very good but although a watchable film I expected something more great.

Perfect casting for Nathan Lane as Irving Mansfield and Bette Midler as Jackie Susann.The problem with the film is the writing. It is quite choppy at best and it appears that parts of the story were absolutely rushed, as if they had to make a deadline.Let's remember that VALLEY OF THE DOLLS bombed as a film in 1967 and I guess that this biography of Jackie Susann was destined to fail as well.It just came too fast that Mansfield had the idea that Susann should start writing. That concept came from out of the blue. Make no mistake, VALLEY OF THE DOLLS was trashy in every sense of the word. Look at the scene they showed in the movie, when Susan Hayward gets her red wig pulled off by Nealy, played by Patty Duke. Remember how Judy Garland, who was supposed to play the part of Helen Lawson-Hayward's part, laughed when she saw this movie? Ditto goes for the film.Despite the bad writing, Midler rises above it to show that Susann was quite a character in her own right. Loud, boisterous, vulgar with desire to reach the top, Midler etched an unforgettable character.Did you notice how fast Mansfield wanted to ditch the marriage but is lured back quickly by Susann.David Hyde Pierce was excellent as the publisher who came around eventually to Susann's feeling. Now, we needed some more feeling with the writing.

Middle-aged women of the world unite -- and watch this movie! The real-life story of Jackie Susann's meteoric and incredibly unlikely rise to fame is much more compelling than any of the sexploitation novels she wrote.Well into her 40s, Susann had three dreadful strikes against her -- her only child was autistic and institutionalized, her acting career had flopped and then she got cancer. She had ground out a novel about the sex-and-drugs peccadilloes of showbiz types, which was considered junk by any and all established literary standards. But Jackie had a shrewd, intuitive sense of what turned ordinary people on, a flamboyant flair for promoting herself plus relentless energy and ambition. She achieved about a decade of glorious success as top best-selling author until she succumbed to a recurrence of cancer in her 50s.If you like this story line, you'll probably like the movie. It's handled in a high-camp manner, with very broad performances by Bette Midler and the rest. Midler and Lane, who plays her kindly and rather pathetic hanger-on of a husband, are wonderfully funny playing a couple with absolutely no class at all. If you were a kid in the 1960s, as I was, you'll probably enjoy Bette wafting around in outrageous outfits and dos.My only criticism is that this very comic style makes the movie play like an extended, patched-together sequence of comedy sketches, rather than a movie. Also, to enjoy the movie, I think it helps if you're a New Yorker. In NYC, eccentricity has traditionally been not just tolerated but encouraged. Many people from other more staid parts of the country come to New York for this reason -- Susann herself was a New York transplant from Philadelphia. Also, NYC attracts lots of wildly ambitious people vying to make it in the worlds of showbiz, the arts, publishing, finance, etc. So,as goofy as Midler's portrait is, it seemed endearingly familiar to me.

I wasn't a fan of Jackie Susann's books and didn't care for the movies based on them. But I LOVED this movie. It was done in a comedy format rather than totally serious, but it was wonderful. I loved her going to the park and facing up into the sky/tree to talk to God. And the bubbly Miss M brought a lot of excitement and energy to the role. As a wanna be writer, myself, I was impressed with Miss Susann's life story especially starting her writing career later in life and making herself into a best-seller and celebrity (with her husband's and publishers' help.) I am glad that she was able to get her books published and have the fame she craved. Everyone should be able to do that in whatever field they prefer. It is a very good book for writers to watch for education on marketing and publicity for your own books. Watch it. It would be a good movie even if it were based loosely on a real person and life.