Stars: Meryl Streep, Dennis Quaid, Shirley Maclaine, Gene Hackman, Richard Dreyfuss, Rene Assa

Director: Mike Nichols

Summary: An actress with a drug and alcohol problem, recovering from a near fatal overdose, accepts a minor role in a film on the condition that she lives with a responsible person during her rehabilitation. That 'person' is her mother, a big star from the 50's who sees herself in her daughter. Both must reach a mutual understanding if they are to live in harmony.

An actress with a drug and alcohol problem, recovering from a near fatal overdose, accepts a minor role in a film on the condition that she lives with a responsible person during her rehabilitation. That 'person' is her mother, a big star from the 50's who sees herself in her daughter. Both must reach a mutual understanding if they are to live in harmony... Music by Carly Simon. Based on a novel by Carrie Fisher.

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A film by Mike Nichols of Carrie Fisher's semi-autobiographical novel, Postcards from the Edgeis an intermittently hilarious, occasionally tear-stained account of an actress' struggle with addiction and with her competitive star mother. Meryl Streep turns in yet another flawlessly perfect performance as Suzanne, who is coping with cleaning up while making yet another idiot cop film. Shirley Maclaine is effective and overpowering as her hard-drinking Old Hollywood star mother perpetually trying to remould her daughter, singing Sondheim songs at parties, showing off her still-perfect legs and occasionally driving into trees. Among the many guest stars, Dennis Quaid is self-effacingly unpleasant as an unreliable boyfriend, Gene Hackman charismatic as a fatherly director and Annette Benning impressive in a cameo as a starlet rival. Nichols' standard slickness is very much on display here; this is perhaps too obviously manipulative a film in which the emotional detail is never quite as impressive as the central performances and script deserve.

On the DVD: The DVD takes the rather subversive risk of giving the commentary role to Carrie Fisher, who discusses entertainingly how the screenplay evolved from her original novel, occasionally making clear that certain sentimentalisations of the characters were not her idea; she argues coherently that the film makes Meryl Streep's character a little too much the martyr. She also gives us a lot of faintly scurrilous Hollywood and family gossip. It also provides the theatrical trailer and filmographies for the director and major players. --Roz Kaveney

Aspect Ratio:	1.85 Wide Screen, 16:9 Anamorphic Wide Screen
Main Language:	English
Region:	Region 2
Special Features:	Feature Length Commentary By Carrie Fisher, Filmographies, Interactive Menus, Scene Selections
Subtitles:	Arabic, Bulgarian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Icelandic, Norwegian, Polish, Swedish, Turkish
Year:	1990
Release Date:	March 8, 2004
Runtime:	97 minutes
Certification:
Catalogue Number:	C 822 383 9
Keywords:	General, Edge, Postcards, From, Drama
Genre:	Drama