Child Star: The Shirley Temple Story

2001 "Before Britney, before Madonna ... another girl danced her way to stardom."
6.1| 1h35m| en
Details

As America struggled through the Great Depression in the 1930s, a little girl with big dimples and indescribable charm danced her way into the hearts of moviegoers around the world.

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Reviews

Stoutor It's not great by any means, but it's a pretty good movie that didn't leave me filled with regret for investing time in it.
Afouotos Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.
SanEat A film with more than the usual spoiler issues. Talking about it in any detail feels akin to handing you a gift-wrapped present and saying, "I hope you like it -- It's a thriller about a diabolical secret experiment."
Invaderbank The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.
eljaykay1219-310-146082 This movie was okay. Ashley Rose Orr did a fine job as Shirley in recreated scenes from S.T. movies but not so well playing her off screen persona. That was probably the fault of the director. In one early scene Gertrude says that Shirley is 5 and the director tells her to say she is 4. 10 year old Ashley appeared to be an average size child. No way could she pass for under age 8. The vinegar rinse scene in the bathtub made no sense. Her hair was dry and curly when Gertrude rinsed it with water and vinegar. That was a popular way to make hair shine but it was done after the hair was washed. . Those two things made the movie less believable to me. I thought Hinton Battle did a great job.
Gregster-5 Really quite a peculiar bio pic. In fairness, I didn't catch the first 15 minutes of this when it was shown on TV, but I can't imagine it being substantially different from the rest of the movie. Some observations:it's difficult to believe that a screenplay like this got through development. - The movie seems to have a somewhat sanitized view of shirly's relationship with her parents, the scenes where she interacts with them are strangely muted - Nothing (that I could see) is mentioned about race and shirly's relationship with Bill Bojangles (uncle billy) - surely this would have been interesting to learn about - we see how the studio boos sees shirly, and makes some offhand comments privately, but in terms of the screenplay, it leads nowhere - the young lady who plays Temple is fine, but doesn't resemble her in any way physically or in the way she speaks or mannerisms. - the movie seems to end mid-scene
Snzz999 Child Star was professionally done. The movie had so many memorable song and dance routines amazingly done by Ashley Rose Orr and Hinton Battle. The connection between Shirley and her mother (played by Connie Britton of Spin City) and Shirley and Bojangles felt real and loving. It is a family movie that can be enjoyed by young and old. My family loved the movie. Ashley is very talented. I look forward to seeing her in more movies. She makes the movie fun and she really Sparkles!
SanDiego The actress chosen for this film needed not only to match Shirley Temple's talent (for recreating the movie scenes), but had to rise above that talent to portray the private Shirley Temple without resorting to parody. This film failed miserably to portray Shirley Temple off screen and it wasn't all Orr's fault. The director seemed to give her only one direction "do your Shirley Temple impression" and the scriptwriter (with help by the real Shirley Temple-Black) just didn't have much to give Orr. The best scenes were the recreations of the classic films and it is here where Orr's impression was appropriate and well done. However, Orr was never convincing as Shirley Temple off the set and reminded me of all those Shirley-wannabes that mothers dressed their children like during Shirley Temple's most successful years. There was even a quirky scene in this film where Shirley's dad is bombarded by these wannabe stage moms and their wannabe Shirleys that brought everything full circle. Orr looked as much like Shirley Temple as any kid with a curly wig, tap shoes, and a short polka-dotted dress. One of the big problems with the film is the fact that Shirley Temple had relatively little drama, little conflict, in her real life. Her parents didn't beat her, she wasn't a drunk, and there were no major deaths in her life. She didn't have to struggle and according to the film, didn't even have to work very hard. Good for her, but where's the story? Orr is an energetic actress, but there was just too much Orr. The scriptwriters struggled to come up with any conflict and chose a silly sub-plot about Amelia Earhart's death (with a walk-on by another parody...Earhart was even wearing a flight jacket!!! What, no goggles?). Worse, they worked the role of Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz into the entire arc of the film as if Shirley Temple's career was nothing in comparison to that role. Every major actor has been up for a role that became a classic for another actor. Classics are created by a perfect match of cast and film. A good rule of thumb is that if the film was a classic, and wouldn't have been with a major cast change. Oz probably would have been just another Shirley Temple film instead of a classic. Judy Garland's adult-like persona actually made the film the classic it became. Is there anyone besides Ms. Temple-Black that doesn't believe that the world was blessed to have Garland play Dorothy? Jeesh, can you believe that Temple so miffed about that one that she would make it a major plot point? Get over it Shirley, you did a good job with Heidi. Oh my goodness! Since Temple's life was actually quite boring and all the drama was in her film roles. Not surprisingly, Shirley the person pales in comparison to her roles and this film pales against the memory of her classic movies. If they ever make a sequel about an adult Shirley Temple downing Tequillas and tranquilizers in her bathroom over the loss of never playing Dorothy Gale I'll watch. Especially if the actress wears a curly wig, tap shoes, and a short polka-dotted dress.