'Mildred Pierce' - 'Part Four & Five': Mommy dearest?
What did everyone ultimately think of the HBO miniseries?
Evan Rachel Wood in "Mildred Pierce."
Credit: HBO
HBO's "Mildred Pierce" remake came to an end tonight with 150-plus minutes of fights, reconciliations, more fights, nudity, singing and more fights. From what I've read here and elsewhere, reaction to the miniseries was as mixed among audiences as it was among critics, with some of you loving the style and performances and others (like me) having an impossible time getting around everything involving Veda (finally played tonight by Evan Rachel Wood).
Now that it's all over, what did everybody else think? Was it worth the nearly 6-hour commitment?
Alan Sepinwall has been reviewing television since the mid-'90s, first for Tony Soprano's hometown paper, The Star-Ledger, and now for HitFix. His new book, "The Revolution Was Televised," about the last 15 years of TV drama, is for sale at Amazon. He can be reached at sepinwall@hitfix.com
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Login or create a HitFix account Login SignupJim S
April 10, 2011 at 11:42PM EST Reply to CommentMan, I thought it was slow. Plus, they never really sold why Mildred was so hooked up with that brat of a daughter.
I know we're talking about different times and all, but that fierce Pierce devotion, I just didn't buy it, and that's the whole show. I kept waiting for something to happen. This could have easily been a two-hour movie.
I'm with you Mr. Sepinwall.
fergie i agree
April 11, 2011 at 2:54AM ESTStav You said it all. I kinda enjoyed the first 3 eps, but last two were insufferable and inexplicable (well except for the one Evan Wood scene).
April 11, 2011 at 12:33PM ESTHollywoodaholic What was the point? Guilt over her youngest daughter's death makes her a slave to her oldest bad seed daughter and 5 hours (and how many years) of wasted time later, to hell with it, let's get drunk. That's what we all should have said instead of wasting our time on this pointless melodrama.
April 12, 2011 at 9:17AM ESTSarah
April 11, 2011 at 12:08AM EST Reply to CommentI can't decide if I really wanted Mildred the character to get away from the awful daughter or if it was goodwill towards Kate Winslet. Similarly, I can't decide if it was dislike of Veda the character or the fact that I haven't liked Evan Rahel Wood in anything since Once and Again. Either way, I was pretty bored the entire 4th and 5th parts if the miniseries.
virginia
April 11, 2011 at 12:12AM EST Reply to CommentI enjoyed it very much indeed--from start to finish--and look forward to being able to see it in one clean sweep when it comes out on DVD. I just loved the moment when Monty educates Burt on the proper way in which encores come into being -- NOT at the end of the first "act". Class differences perfectly highlighted in a few short lines of dialogue. So well acted between the two men -- and a wonderful moment for a silent Winslet. The nude Veda scene was pretty electric. Having seen the original Crawford-Curtiz version many times now, I'm definitely team Haynes.
Fergoe Team Hayes. Have you seen the first Mildred Pierce? This one was so not worth my 150 minutes. By the way eda nude sceen made me gag.
April 11, 2011 at 2:53AM ESTvirginia Fergoe -- Have seen the original MP several times and am a fan of both Curtiz and, on a tangent, the terrific Douglas Sirk. My view is no doubt tempered by a certain distaste for Joan Crawford. Rarely my cup of tea.
April 11, 2011 at 9:29AM EST
April 11, 2011 at 12:15AM EST Reply to CommentI was with it all the way, until they added that new stuff at the end to slap what passed for a happy ending on it (Mildred remarrying Bert, calling Veda out on her plotting, making up with Ida). Why follow the book so closely, almost to the point of insanity, only to add crap to make the audience happy that Mildred will be just fine after everything that's happened. Disappointing.
J I never read the book,have only seen this and the Joan Crawford version,but that ending was awful. It felt like panderering to the crowd that insists on a happy ending for everything. All in all this miniseries was ok,not great. Maybe I'm just looking at the story through modern eyes,but Mildred was a class A sucker. It's hard to imagine any modern successful business woman putting up with that bitch daughter and the cipher Monte.
April 11, 2011 at 12:52AM ESTJon NH Have you really read the book? That's exactly how the book ends, almost word for word. And marrying Bert is not supposed to be a "happy ending", the "let's get stinko" ending implies strongly that she's going to join Bert in alcoholic apathy, not pick herself up by her bootstraps.
April 11, 2011 at 10:51AM ESTKitty I don't think the ending was happy at all. Mildred lost her business and has finally realized that her daughter is evil. Of course she and her broke husband are going to get drunk.
April 11, 2011 at 5:47PM EST
April 11, 2011 at 2:13AM EST Reply to CommentSelf indulgent, monotonous and, ultimately, pointless. Winslett was miscast and much of the drama veered into camp. I still have no idea why Haynes made this. (Although we now know Evan Rachel Wood is a fantastic lip syncer)
And lord, he could have actually shot it in LA...
LJA Bingo.
April 11, 2011 at 3:19AM ESTI'm usually quite fond of character pieces, but I found this tedious in the extreme.
fergie
April 11, 2011 at 2:50AM EST Reply to CommentI agree. Some of it was okay but that ending was so horrible. I was like, "Is this really the end?". Who in the right mind would hae supported a daughter like Veda. Can we say adoption. Plus monte would hae been shot that night.
Mirri
April 11, 2011 at 7:37AM EST Reply to CommentCompared to the original movie this was miles better but it was essentially the Kate Winslet show, I never got excited to watch it but when it was on my screen I felt drawn to it mostly because I'm a huge fan of Kate and generally sympathize with the characters she plays. On top of that it was shot beautifully, so just hand them there Emmy's and I'm sure they'll be happy
opusiam
April 11, 2011 at 9:42AM EST Reply to CommentI still cannot believe I watched this dribble...Evan Rahel Wood-maybe the nude scene helped her get the part but she is dreadful. Tedious soap opear-not worthy of being a special HBO mini-series...maybe HBO realized its blunder and that's why it aired 5 episodes in three days.
Tom
April 11, 2011 at 9:55AM EST Reply to CommentI like to think that somewhere out in the Ozarks in the late 1930s a young, sensitive whoreson bastard huddled in the shadows of his closet-bedroom, breathlesslly listening as his folks tuned into the Saturday night wireless program in the next room. And as Veda Pierce hit those ethereally beautiful notes, 13-year-old Dick Whitman choked back the tears and thought to himself, “There’s a better world out there...a world of beauty and class. And I’m going to find it!â€
Seriously, though, I have to take issue criticisms of “Mildred Pierce†which question the title character’s motives...“No savvy business woman today would blah blah blah...†Oh, really? Americans today don’t coddle spoiled children? They don’t persist in failed relationships because the other party’s looks or social connections feed their egos? They don’t overleverage themselves in order to finance lifestyles they can’t afford but which prop up their self-esteem?
I think a lot of the fault people are finding with this series reflects just how alien 1930s American culture is to us, 70 years down the road. If Cain were writing his novel today, then Mildred would be – I dunno – a high-flying e-mail entrepreneur who goes bust financing her borderline daughter’s indie film project or alt-rock-band tour. The notion that upwardly-mobile class striving could be realized through a career in classical music or opera strikes the contemporary audience as absurd. But Cain wasn’t writing today, and “Mildred Pierce†is a period piece. Haynes and his team did a marvelous job of capturing that period and delivering Cain’s story.
Kitty Oh my God--Don Draper *is* Veda Pierce!
April 11, 2011 at 5:51PM ESTI quite liked the miniseries; I agree that they did a great job capturing the period and that Mildred's adoration of her evil daughter isn't *that* hard to believe.
April 11, 2011 at 9:56AM EST Reply to CommentA crashing, crushing pretentious bore....but I'm sure there'll be Emmys all around cuz HBO kinda bulldozes over everything.....please enlighten me on just WHY there had to be nude scenes....I agree, gagworthy esp when Wood gets out of that bed to go brush her hair...yuck!! This was most definitely the Kate Winslet show!
Colleen
April 11, 2011 at 10:26AM EST Reply to CommentWrite a comment...
Colleen
April 11, 2011 at 10:28AM EST Reply to CommentSo tedious that I canceled the DVR recording of the last two parts.
tony So did I what a disappointment. Joan Crawford version stands head and shoulders above this one.
April 11, 2011 at 11:18AM ESTI guess if I never saw the original I might feel differently about this version.
I am going to read the book now and mayvbe my opinion will change
Ace Freebird
April 11, 2011 at 11:34AM EST Reply to CommentAbsolutely not worth the six-hour commitment. Alan, stay away.
Indeed
April 11, 2011 at 2:03PM EST Reply to CommentI haven't watched the last episode yet. But I'll say what I've said to other people I've recommended this to: It's not everyone, but it's good at what it is. A beautifully made, well-acted soap opera.
I've enjoyed it and am looking forward to watching the last installment. Having said that: I've never seen the Joan Crawford version.
April 11, 2011 at 10:19PM ESTGOOD GOD, IT'S AWFUL
April 11, 2011 at 11:00PM EST Reply to CommentIn a word, no. Tedious doesn't begin to describe this waste of my time.
KB
April 12, 2011 at 12:01AM EST Reply to CommentTo me it seemed like a miniseries that in no way shape or form ever needed to be made... way too sloooooow, with very few redeeming qualities regarding the story at least... the acting could not make up for the monotony
Vigi
April 12, 2011 at 1:29AM EST Reply to CommentA lot of young people today don't like to acknowledge that they made films before the American New Wave movement of the seventies; and a lot of older people think that nothing good has been made since.
If you fit into either category then you will not like Mildred Pierce, which unfortunately leaves only about five percent of the serious Film/TV audience that are able to view this thing objectively.
As someone who likes to think they belong in that minority I liked MP. Yes it was slow but that doesn't equal boring, the family drama and the intricate detailing of the restaurant industry were both fascinating, but there was never enough content for it to need to stretch on for quite so long. Stylistically it certainly looked very nice, but was never quite as interesting as Haynes previous works.
Objectively, I thought it was well made and worth watching but little more than that. Not deserving of the derision nor the Emmy's (Margo better win best Actress, though I guess she will be classed as Supporting) but a small, flawed success in its own right.
April 12, 2011 at 2:28PM EST Reply to CommentSounds like a lot of people are pissed that Veda didn't get her comeuppence, like she did in the 1945. For that to happy, Haynes would have had to slap that ludicrous murder mystery that Jerry Wald did back in 1945. And for the record, that didn't have a happy ending. Despite Veda being carted off to jail, Mildred was still stuck in her obsessed adoration of Veda. Think I'm kidding? Watch Crawford's face, as Ann Blyth is being escorted away by the cops.
April 12, 2011 at 2:31PM EST Reply to CommentSounds like a lot of people are pissed that Veda didn't get her comeuppence, like she did in the 1945 movie. For that to happen, Haynes would have had to slap that ludicrous murder mystery, that Jerry Wald did back in 1945. An addition that bogged the film's first 20 minutes. And for the record, that didn't have a happy ending. Despite Veda being carted off to jail, Mildred was still stuck in her obsessed adoration of Veda. Think I'm kidding? Watch Crawford's face, as Ann Blyth is being escorted away by the cops.
The problem isn't the miniseries. Nor was the 1945 movie the problem. The problem is that in both versions, Mildred never got over her obsession with Veda. And many people could not deal with that.
Isabelle Yay someone who has seen the 1941 versions ending!!
August 21, 2011 at 12:36PM ESTI kept waiting for the murder scene in the latest version
And was dissaponted to see it end like that,
The ending where Veda shoots Monty pulls the whole story together, Mildreds undying devotion to her evil brat daughter
That she will even take a murder rap for her.
April 12, 2011 at 8:47PM EST Reply to CommentA very enjoyable ride. Todd Haynes got it right.
c
April 12, 2011 at 11:20PM EST Reply to CommentAwful. Total waste of my time. Can I have it back?
April 13, 2011 at 1:30AM EST Reply to CommentI really liked this miniseries. My enthusiasm deflated a little in these last two episodes. I don't know why. But I make Top 10 lists at the end of every year and this will make my list for sure.
Yes, the costume design and performances were great, but Mildred Pierce also hit me on an emotional level. The tender moments between Mildred and her ex-husband were unexpected but felt true. People complain that Mildred's tolerance for Veda is implausible, but I've known really bad mother-daughter relationships. Not this bad, but comparable.
Even though I hadn't seen the Curtiz film or read the original novel, I could tell it would end with Monty sleeping with Veda. A melodrama like this could only that way. And it goes unsaid, but Monty apparently traded one sugar mama for another, only Veda also works as a trophy wife. The downside, of course, is that she has a toxic personality.