GamerTab That was an excellent one.

Stometer Save your money for something good and enjoyable

Console best movie i've ever seen.

Jenna Walter The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

howyoodoon I'll stand by my original review, as I walked out of a theater in NYC when I was 21-years old, after watching this film in 1982. I recall as if yesterday, my sister asked, "What did you think?" I was actually angry..since I'd practically memorized the books,"Shadowlands" as well as Frances Farmer's own 'autobiography' (which has since been largely-credited to have been written by her partner, Jean Ratcliffe). I replied, "Frances Farmer spent her whole career, fighting against the phoniness of Hollywood--and this film is an insult to her memory-- since hardly ANY of this ever happened!" Jessica Lange doubtlessly gives a stunning performance. But WHY ALL THE LIES? The completely made-up character played by Sam Shepard, "Harry York," was created out of whole-cloth. The whole POINT of Frances Farmer's "real life" was that she had no one on her side! Why did they add this "romantic interest," who keeps popping up, out of nowhere, whenever Frances needs a friend? It's ludicrous and completely taints this essentially false film. As if the Frances Farmer story, itself, wasn't dramatic enough?! The script, in fact, is remarkably poor (one of the credited writers is the son of Elia Kazan, too). They add all these false notes that never happened--yet they leave out actual moments from Farmer's life (such as how she picked up an inkwell and threw it at the judge of her trial) which WOULD have added drama to the story. There are some glaringly shoddy performances, too (a completely-overacted performance by the guy who plays the fictionalized version of Frances' actual husband, Leif Ericson, "Dick Steele"--he's allowed to sail straight over the top, making a meal out of the scenery in his only real scene). And, sorry, but I think Kim Stanley's ham-bone performance as Mother Lillian is pretty false, too (though, full-disclosure: I don't really like her in anything). The direction by first-time director, Australian Graeme Clifford, is sloppy and strikes false notes at nearly every turn. But back to Jessica Lange: In certain shots, it is uncanny how she physically resembles Frances Farmer. She's often said that she felt as if Farmer actually "inhabited" her while making this film. I only wish she'd had the clout when making this film to rail against bad writing like Frances Farmer did, against the writers of a third-rate scripts like this...to get the quality bio-pic Farmer deserves.

SnoopyStyle In 1931 Seattle, sixteen year old Frances Farmer (Jessica Lange) wins a national essay competition with an anti-God speech. It attracts the attention of political activist Harry York (Sam Shepard). She turns to acting. She gains success but chafes at the studio system. She leaves Hollywood for Broadway but that is no better. She returns to Hollywood to make B-movies. She falls into alcoholism. Her disturbed behavior gets her arrested. The court puts her under the control of her mother (Kim Stanley). She is forced into mental hospitalization where she's abused. There is a lot of over-dramatic fictionalization. It detracts from realism but it also allows Lange to do some amazing acting. She's given a really wild juicy role and eats it right up.

Irishchatter This does tell a lot about Frances Farmer. She is a woman who has been thorough hell from being a Hollywood star to being a patient in a mental institution. I have no doubt that Hollywood triggered her anxiety, including her mother Lillian who pushed her to go back to Paramount when Frances didn't want to. Seriously, she is a grown adult, she shouldn't have treated her like that. I swear to you, Frances was a really intelligent person and she was way better then the doctors,lawyers and so on who were involved in putting her into an asylum. Of course there you go with ignorance, shutting people with all kinds of problems and not trying to find solutions or goals to make that happen for the individual. Thankfully that ignorance is history even this world is still crazy today with wars!Anyways, Jessica Lange was absolutely amazing and brilliant to play Frances Farmer. It was funny to think herself and her co-star Sam Shepard who played Frances lover Harry York were an actual couple in real life. I guess it was love at first sight on set eh? I have to say, this is a great film to watch even though there is one rape scene that can be extremely uncomfortable to look at and of course, the angry outbursts were upsetting. Two hours is really worth your time and you get interested in the life of Frances Farmer regardless if you know her or not!

a.lampert I watched Frances because I seemed to remember that Kevin Costner had a tiny part at the start of his career and I'm a big fan. I didn't expect necessarily to see anything startling other than what it said on the tin, a film about the real life movie star from the 40's, Frances Farmer, as played by Jessica Lange. I've always admired Jessica Lange as a really good actress but she's never blown me away like some stars do. At least, not until now. Now watching this 1982 movie in 2014 (a bit late, I know), she's completely reversed my previous thoughts about her. Her performance in this picture has to be one of the most dynamic, hypnotic acting stints I've ever seen by an actress. It reminded me a bit of Faye Dunaway in Network (where she won the Oscar). Looking this movie up I saw that Jessica was beaten in 1982 by Meryl Streep in Sophie's Choice, but if ever an actress was robbed of the Oscar, this performance was it. I'd urge anyone who loves acting at the highest level to watch this movie, just for Jessica Lange's performance, although there is also a very strong backup show by Kim Stanley as her mother. Very long at two and half hours, but I couldn't take my eyes off Jessica Lange's face. It's hard to detect between when she's being charming and when she might suddenly explode. Mesmerizing.