Too much about the plot just didn't add up, the writing was bad, some of the scenes were cringey and awkward,

This is a must-see and one of the best documentaries - and films - of this year.

Just intense enough to provide a much-needed diversion, just lightweight enough to make you forget about it soon after it’s over. It’s not exactly “good,” per se, but it does what it sets out to do in terms of putting us on edge, which makes it … successful?

It is interesting even when nothing much happens, which is for most of its 3-hour running time. Read full review

There is no actress in the world who meets, or has met the performance standards of Barbara Stanwyck. This film was the perfect vehicle for her charm, her empathy, her sadness and tears, her quirky wisdom, her seemingly being lost in a cold cruel world. The supporting cast was iffy at best. Eve Arden appears, weak at best, before her domineering, sarcastic personality comes forth as it did in the earlier Mildred Pierce and many films and TV appearances later. George Brent was at best a poor man's choice for leading man and he plays the same role he has in every other film he's done. The two boys were surprisingly strong. But Ms. Stanwyck, so luminous, a star who was on top of her game for decades. This is her at her best and if you watch the film, you can't help taking your eyes off of her.

This was Stanwyck's personal favorite of all the films she made during her long motion picture career. And I think the reason this was the actress' favorite (merely speculating) is the great scene where she tells off the snooty society woman at the New Year's party. Wow--it has all the toughness that Stanwyck does so well in her best roles. I wanted to stand up and applaud her when that scene finished playing. I am sure she enjoyed filming that, because she is truly on fire like only Stanwyck can be.With regards to the rest of the cast: Lucile Watson turns up as the "cranky old-school mother" with her own definition of mourning. Trying to tell her daughter how to grieve is one of the high points, and makes her the arch villain of the piece. And she plays it perfectly.As for the kids-- a little too baby-faced, but in a way it shows how they are still vulnerable and still need their mother and grandmother. The scene where the women see the boys off at the train station earlier in the picture was poignant and heartbreaking without going over the top.Eve Arden is stellar in her supporting role as the best friend. I also like Warner Anderson's underplayed lawyer that should logically be the man Stanwyck turns to after the husband's death. And of course, Esther Dale, as Anna the housekeeper. The part where Jessica (Stanwyck) asks Anna to have dinner with her was another touching scene. This is a wonderful film with so many excellent moments.

Barbara Stanwyck, sometimes underrated as an actress (four Oscar nominations and no wins) and always undervalued as a star, shows why she lasted so long - she could do anything. Usually cast as a mobster's tough tart or a hard-luck dame and everything in between, here she plays a first-class lady, a widowed mother of two, a fine upstanding citizen who lives in that Never-Never Land called the Upper Middle Class laughingly depicted by Hollywood as a place where women belong to country clubs, constantly appear dressed in mink and evening gowns, are constantly making grand entrances and exits and are forever worrying what the neighbors will think. Joan Crawford fit right into this nonsensical neighborhood once she joined Warner Bros. and may well have been offered this script but thankfully Stanwyck took the part and created from the ground up another unforgettable performance in a forgettable (but very popular in its day) film. The story is nothing special but oh! how Barbara dominates every scene she's in, and does it without really trying (or so it seems). While Davis and Crawford had a tendency to remind audiences that they were acting, Stanwyck just rolled up her sleeves and got the job done. Such truth in her work! Watching her is an electric experience, she connects with an audience like few stars had or have before or since. Splendid!

My Reputation (1946)This comes at the real peak of Barbara Stanwyck's career, a couple of years after her now most famous film, "Double Indemnity." And she's terrific, playing from the first minute a widow who now has to put her life back together, all with the equally terrific Lucile Watson as her strong willed mother. There is also the dependable Eve Arden as a sidekick, not so different than Joan Crawford's in "Mildred Pierce," and the perfectly cast Jerome Cowan as a suitor who moves in on her before she has quite realized she's a widow. Eventually the stellar cast is filled in by George Brent, ever stable and likable…with his inevitable appeal to the main character.So this is a great 1940s drama, filled with deep sentiments, tight friendships, distraught characters who need more than they can ever get, and rays of hope. It fits the needs of an audience which was filled with women recently widowed, either literally or figuratively with men returning from the war not ready to be the men they were before going away. It is 1946, after all, a giant tipping point in American social life.Do you want more reasons to love this movie? The music is by the legendary Max Steiner (who scored "Gone with the Wind" for starters). And the cinematography is by the superb James Wong Howe (who shot the stunning "Sweet Smell of Success"). What slows the film down at all is plain old chemistry—Brent is not a convincing leading man, for me, and he and Stanwyck don't seem capable of really smoking on screen. The plot does imply a formality at first, and so it makes sense as far as that goes. But eventually we are meant to feel both characters in their loneliness, and their longing for each other. The war literally comes into play, and it must of struck painful chords in many.One of the more interesting aspects is the problem of a widow dating a new man with the eyes of her friends and neighbors watching, and disapproving of, her every move, reaching the point of scandal for no reason. I'm sure the point of the movie is partly to push that point, so the world would be be more understanding. There is a huge scene at a party, just before the new couple rushes to Chicago for a dramatic New Year's Eve. So imagine a vividly photographed, highly emotional drama that fit into the needs of the times perfectly. Does the movie rise to its intentions—quite well, very intelligently, yes. I say see it, and you'll find many things to love.