Linbeymusol Wonderful character development!

Jeanskynebu the audience applauded

ThedevilChoose When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

Catangro After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

moonspinner55 Jessica Lange doesn't do her own singing as country legend Patsy Cline, however that hardly matters because the cadences of her speaking voice are musical. Lange hits some husky, lusty low-notes as the Virginia-born singer who met second husband Charlie Dick (Ed Harris) in 1956 while performing in a local bar, later staying by him through thin times (her pregnancy forcing her off a tour, his stint in the Army after being drafted) and tentative success (a hit record, "Walkin' After Midnight", which she first performed on a TV talent program). Robert Getchell's script has some crackling dialogue, but the episodes of Cline's hard struggle for country-western success as well as her tempestuous marriage to hellraiser Dick are needlessly stretched out; there's too much struggle and too much temperament, and the film begins to seem like an uphill climb (it's exhausting). For a major production with A-list talent, "Sweet Dreams" also looks a little drab and ordinary, without the location flavor of an earlier bio-pic, "Coal Miner's Daughter". Oscar-nominated Lange matches up well with Ann Wedgeworth as her mama, and her angry love for rascal Harris is well conveyed, but the highlights of Patsy Cline's career are tucked away in the folds of the domestic dramaturgy. **1/2 from ****

NutzieFagin I saw this film in the 80's when I was a young girl, and it literally opened my eyes to the music of Patsy Cline. What a voice! I heard of her but never heard her music before because it was considered old and outdated but Brother! you don't know what you're missing! I currently live in Maryland, not far from Winchester VA, Patsy Cline's hometown. Here is what I heard about Patsy's life. Patsy was born Virginia Patterson Hensley. Her mother, Hilda Hensley was a expert seamstress who married a man years her senior. The marriage was not a success because husband and father abandoned Hilda and her children. Being the oldest child, Patsy decided to become head of the family and dropped out of high school to get a job in order to support her mother and siblings. Since Hilda had Patsy at the tender age of sixteen, mother and daughter had a fierce bond until Patsy's death.Hilda and Patsy belonged to a church choir which probably lead to her love of music. Patsy was said to have perfect pitch with her voice. Eventually Patsy got involved in as a singer in bands and performed a couple gigs around town. She did marry an older man, Gerald Cline but the marriage was unsuccessful because Gerald wanted her to settle down as a normal housewife. Patsy was not a shy wallflower, but a determined woman who went after a goal when she saw it. She knew during this time that she wanted to become a singer and she knew she wanted to marry a man she recently met, Charlie Dick. After playing with such bands and appearances like Jimmy Dean and winning a talent show on Arthur Godfrey, her career took off. Her name was changed from "Ginny" to Patsy after a friend called her "Patsy" from her middle name "Patterson" Jessica Lange does a very impressive performance as Patsy Cline although the lip sync hing is a little tight. But she captures the forceful spirit Of Cline. Ed Harris, who plays Charlie Dick is good. He gives Charlie a somewhat crude character and seems somewhat obsessed with his wife while fighting some inner demons like alcohol and jealousy. But the is a love story here--both characters drawing strengths and weaknesses from one another.The film does portray Patsy as a somewhat battered wife---somewhat hard to believe because Patsy was not a person to take abuse from most people. She had a reputation for getting things cut and dry off the table with absolutely no nonsense. Some bands who performed at venues and got paid after the event would risk getting stiffed from unscrupulous mangers. But Patsy would demand money from up front before performing--"No Dough, No Show" was her motto. There is also one scene where Patsy hints that she might have been molested by her father--but there is no evidence about this. There was some protest from family members and Charlie Dick about this portrayal but they just seemed to shrug it off and not make further waves---I guess they just thought it was just better to leave it as it is.There is also mis information about the car accident that Patsy suffered as well as the fateful plane crash. Also, her marriage to Charlie Dick had its problems like most marriages---but was it abusive? All in all, despite the facts possibly bended to make the story more interesting, it is the music that is the real star of the show. It is introduction to whet your appetite and seek out further recordings. Had Patsy Cline survived today, I think she would have been greater than her legend. She was one of the first Country music performers to cross over into the pop charts.So despite the mis information to give the film more sensationalism, see the film and enjoy the music! I highly recommend getting the soundtrack too.

Lechuguilla As a cinematic biography of country/western singer Patsy Cline, "Sweet Dreams" is fairly good. The story takes place mostly in the 50s and 60s during which time she had already begun singing in local honky-tonks. The film's plot is straightforward and easy to follow. Production design is excellent. Overall acting quality is credible, with good performances from Jessica Lange as Patsy Cline; reliable Ed Harris as Patsy's redneck husband, Charlie Dick; and wonderful Ann Wedgeworth as Patsy's mother. Profuse country/western music helps make the film even more enjoyable, though I wish they could have found a spot in the film for "Faded Love", one of Cline's most popular songs.Patsy was talented, ambitious, frustrated, determined, and outgoing. Charlie Dick comes across in the film as a jerk. And my main complaint about this film is that too much time is spent on him, rather than on Patsy and her career. The film's climax is not entirely consistent with known facts; but it is very dramatic."Sweet Dreams" will appeal to older viewers, as well as to those who like country/western music. And, of course, being a biography, the film will appeal to viewers who like real life stories.

gftbiloxi Reality is generally more complicated than any motion picture can possibly convey--and such is the case with SWEET DREAMS, the 1985 bio-pic of singer Patsy Cline, which ran into a firestorm of criticism at the time of its release. For Patsy Cline was not a figure from the remote past. She and her life were extremely well recalled by family, friends, and co-workers, and one and all attacked the film as an extremely inaccurate portrait of her, her husband Charlie, and her life and career.To a certain extent, the validity of these complaints about the film are a matter of opinion. But it does seem likely that the script softened Cline's harder edges and over-emphasized the stormy nature of her marriage in order to cast her in the role of victim. What isn't opinion is the way the film treats her career: it didn't happen like that, and while the film presents her as a great star at the time of her death in truth she had released only a handful of widely distributed records by 1963--and while some of them were big hits, they weren't quite as big as you might think. Even the celebrated "Sweet Dreams" never made it to the top spot on any music chart, and it was not until well after her death that she received full recognition for her remarkable work.So instead of truth, or even a good approximation of it, SWEET DREAMS gives us the legend, the folk tale of the rough-and-tumble girl with the big, emotional voice who came from no where, married an abusive husband, and leaped into stardom that was cut short by an untimely death. And as legend, the film works very well.The weak point of the film is the script, which plays largely to a "domestic drama" aspect and tends to smooth out the characters in a "santized for your protection" sort of way. The direction and cinematography are no great shakes either, and ultimately SWEET DREAMS looks very much like a made-for-television movie. But the cast carries it off in fine style. Jessica Lang looks no more like Patsy Cline than I do, and her lip-scynchs to Cline's work is rather hit-and-miss, but she gives a truly memorable performance; Ed Harris equals her in the role of husband Charlie, and together they create a synergy that has tremendous power. The supporting cast is also quite good, with Ann Wedgeworth a standout in the role of Cline's mother Hilda.And then there is that soundtrack. Even if you've heard all these songs a thousand times, they're still worth hearing again. Patsy Cline was truly an amazing artist. But the film does something odd with them: the bulk of the story is set during the 1950s, but there is not a 1950s-era Cline vocal to be heard in the entire film, everything is taken from her glory years at MCA between 1960 and 1963. And very often it seemed to me that the original scoring of Cline's songs had been replaced with new arrangements.And that, ultimately, is rather typical of the film as a whole. Just a little change here, just a little inaccuracy there, and while they all seem slight individually, they add up to a fairly significant distortion collectively. The performances make it worth watching, and they bring it in at a solid four stars. But if you're expecting anything more than the glossy legend of Patsy Cline, you won't find it here.Gary F. Taylor, aka GFT, Amazon Reviewer