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Well, no. Pretty good, but far from
great. On paper it's a great idea: Bette Midler as Jacqueline
Suzanne, with Nathan Lane as her hubby-manager Irving Mansfield,
a Paul Rudnick script, and Andrew Bergman directing. Of course
WILD "liberties" were taken with the truth. This is
less the "real" Jackie Suzanne, than our collective
imaginary memory of her filtered though 60's nostalgia and one
too many viewings of VOTD. They even got Dionne Warwick to sing a
title tune by Burt Bachrach and Hal David!
The "look" of it all is great, and scene for scene
it's funny, but there's no narrative dynamic at work. Nathan is
beautifully restrained. Bette has problems in the first part when
she's trying to be a success (too shrill, no shading) but perfect
when Jackie hits the jackpot (shrill as all hell, and who needs
shading?) My colleague, Alonso Duralde, who's a big Suzanne-o-phile
saw an early screening and didn't much like it: "It's kind
of like Beaches with Bette playing both parts."
Still, it's worth seeing.
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