You won't be disappointed!

Terrible acting, screenplay and direction.

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

Academy Award winners, Meryl Streep and Shirley MacLaine play a mother and daughter actress and singers in Hollywood, California. They are loosely based on Carrie Fisher's memoir about her life as the daughter of Debbie Reynolds. The film has great moments with Streep and Maclaine and mother and daughter. The cast is first rate. Mary Wickes who played Grandma was one of Hollywood's greatest character actresses. Conrad Bain played Grandpa. The film is about how Suzanne Vale must live with her mother, Doris Mann, while she is shooting with a film with an all-star cast and directed by Mike Nichols. Gene Hackman played the director. Richard Dreyfuss played the doctor. Carrie Fisher even has a cameo. Annette Bening made her film debut. Dennis Quaid displayed his ability to act with Streep. The film is fine and great to see Meryl Streep sing too. A must for Meryl Streep fans to see and wonder why she's marvelous Meryl Streep.

I wouldn't go so far as to call Mike Nichols's "Postcards from the Edge" a masterpiece. It's a good movie, but that's it. Both Meryl Streep and Shirley MacLaine give their best as an actress recovering from drug addiction, and her faded star of a mother. Overall, the movie depicts the entertainment industry as a bastion of emptiness and nastiness (namely in the scene where Streep's character listens to a director talk about her physique). I guess that no one rips at Hollywood more than Hollywood itself.The movie is based on a semi-autobiographical novel by Carrie Fisher. I understand that the novel is told partly in epistolary form, hence the title. The movie is told from the usual first-person perspective. It's not the most biting satire, but the conflict between the mother and daughter set the stage. In one scene, the mom recalls an awkward incident with an executive; I suspect that sort of thing happened more often than we realize.In the end, it's worth seeing. I read that Jamie Lee Curtis and Janet Leigh were considered for the roles; I would've been inclined to cast them.

Meryl Streep can be the villain, the hero, the sister, the daughter, the mother, the spirit, the icon. In Postcards from the Edge, however, she is a flat out mess. Streep portrays Suzanne Vale, a successful actress who is about to hit the post-I Know Who Killed Me Lindsay Lohan stage of her career. She relies on cocaine just to get through the day. She partakes in casual affairs she doesn't remember the next day. She is like a robot, barely able to function in her daily job. She doesn't want to hurt anybody, but her habits are about to.Suzanne is finally given a wake-up call when she accidentally overdoses on a deadly mix of narcotics. After getting her stomach pumped, she ends up in rehab, struggling to piece her life back together. But her shaky mind begins to rattle even more when her mother, Doris Mann (Shirley MacLaine), arrives on the scene. Doris is not just Suzanne's mother; she is a celebrated legend, a symbol of the '50s/'60s era of Hollywood musicals.Doris means well, but she's possibly too self-centered for her own good. When she throws Suzanne a "welcome-home" party, she opens the front door, mugs for the varying cameras, and, with dramatic emphasis, declares, "My baby is home!" When the party is hitting its last legs, she pressures Suzanne to sing in front of everybody. Yet, the second her daughter finishes, she pulls one of those don't-make-me-sing (wink!) acts and one- ups her without even realizing that it may be just a little bitchy.The rehab clinic advises that Suzanne live with Doris in order to have someone constantly watching her, but that probably isn't a good idea. Whether she'd like to admit it or not, Doris is an addict herself, popping champagne in the early hours of the morning or mixing in an absurd amount of vodka into her fruit smoothies. Within the important first months of Suzanne's recovery, the mother/daughter dynamic is challenged after years of repressed emotions and unexpressed opinions.Postcards from the Edge originally began as an autobiographical novel by Princess Leia herself, the self-deprecating Carrie Fisher. As a film (which was also penned by Fisher), it contains a darkly funny sting. Deeply rooted in time-to-get-my-life-together reality and over-the-top, Norma Desmond-like expression, it's a comedy that is solidly entertaining but also bitterly true. One can only wonder how much of the film is lifted directly from the lives of Fisher and her famous mother, the inimitable Debbie Reynolds.Mike Nichols has made movies that range from profoundly moving to breezily humorous, and Postcards from the Edge lands somewhere in the middle. It isn't as vigorously thought-provoking as many of his other undertakings, but it captures the mindset that, no matter how terrible life is, you can always find the laughter in it. Surely, Doris' diva attitude is sickening to the long-suffering Suzanne, but we see the events through Nichols' eyes. We're laughing, uncomfortably of course, but there's also unrelenting sympathy for both Suzanne and Doris. Suzanne has never lived a day without stooping under Doris' grand shadow, and Doris has never been able to meet the expectations of her ever-grumbling mother (Mary Wickes). Nichols films these women through a comedic lens, but there's an underlying anguish that he captures with enrichment.If Postcards from the Edge is more scathing than it is meaningful, we have Streep, MacLaine, and Fisher to thank for all of its successes. Streep and MacLaine immerse themselves in their roles, understanding the women they're playing with unforced ease, while Fisher's screenplay contains absolutely scintillating dialogue. It isn't without its faults, but Postcards from the Edge rarely misses the mark.Read more at petersonreviews.com

I have a good buddy, who some 20 years ago got tired of getting drunk, stoned and hung-over and began going to AA. Evidently during the meetings the participants open up and mention some of the calamities that occurred to them while abusing alcohol and drugs. (They do seem to go together!) He noticed that there were a few rather attractive women, who were also quite revealing in their tales of drinking, drugs and sexual debauchery that occurred while under the influence. He also realized that they also, like him, needed some kind of emotional outlet and while they could no longer drink or do drugs, recreational sex was still a way to have fun. So ,he began asking a lot of them out for coffee…Which brings us to 2 things that "Postcards From the Edge" show us:1-Even a very serious subject, such as substance abuse, can have a lot of humor.B-Most men are pigs.As far as the latter, actress Suzanne Vale (Meryl Streep) discovers her Prince Charming, Jack Faulkner (Dennis Quaid) who is really an expert at getting laid. It's easier when they are drunk and coked up, but Jack is capable of delivering the romantic manipulation needed to seduce Suzanne when she is also stone cold sober. Although she finds out from another actress (Annette Benning, in a great cameo) that not only had Jack had sex with her in the afternoon before their date that evening, but he used some of the very same lines. Fortunately, she finds out before she's invested too much emotional baggage in the relationship.As far her substance abuse, the way that Mike Nichols avoids the heavy handed treatment of drugs makes this an entertaining film. There is virtually no background on Streep's character. We get introduced to her on a movie set, where between takes she goes to her trailer to snort up. After ending in an ER from an overdose, she has to go to a detox before getting released in her mother's care. Mom is Doris Mann (Shirley Maclaine) who was a big star in her day, but now in her 50's the roles are few and far between. Doris is a functioning alcoholic .And while none of this really seems too funny, there are some hilarious lines in a smart and well written script. Shirley is playing a character quite similar to Aurora in "Terms of Endearment." She loves her daughter but is envious of her youth and while she realizes she can't get it back, she can't help but try to control every aspect of her life, whether it her professional or social life. She has a huge party to celebrate Suzanne's release from detox and ups wowing the crowd with a musical number. Although she had Suzanne open for her first with a song. There's not a whole lot that happens in this movie. For us who are neophytes to the workings on a film set it's fascinating to watch what goes on in production as we watch Suzanne the actress at work. This is a movie that moves at a fast clip, it's only 101 minutes and while some may feel that there could have been more background about Suzanne and Doris, Nichols really waits the end to tell us why Suzanne ended up in rehab. Incredible performances by Streep and Maclaine. Shirley also shows off a great pair of legs, even at age 56. Quaid does as great job as a sleazeball, while Gene Hackman as always is good as a tough, but caring director. Richard Dreyfuss and Carl Reiner have cameos and the great character actress Mary Wickes has a hilarious bit as Suzanne's grandmother.BTW, my friend is still clean and sober after 20 years.