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Postcards from the Edge

The movie Postcards from the Edge was based on the book Postcards from the Edge.

Which one did you like better, the movie or the book?  There are 5 votes for the book, and 7 votes for the movie.

Movie details for Postcards from the Edge

The movie was released in 1990 and directed by Mike Nichols, who also directed Primary Colors (1998). Postcards from the Edge was produced by Sony Pictures. More information on the movie is available on Amazon.com and also IMDb.

Actors on this movie include Meryl Streep, Shirley MacLaine, Dennis Quaid, Gene Hackman, Richard Dreyfuss, Rob Reiner, Mary Wickes, Conrad Bain, Annette Bening, Simon Callow, Gary Morton, CCH Pounder, Sidney Armus, Robin Bartlett, Barbara Garrick, Anthony Heald, Dana Ivey, Oliver Platt, Michael Ontkean and Pepe Serna.

 

Read More About This Movie

As its title might suggest, this movie based on Carrie Fisher's Hollywood struggle works better as a snapshot than as a complete film. Meryl Streep plays Suzanne Vale, a successful actress who is lost in her addictions. Her episodes are never as bombasti... Read More
As its title might suggest, this movie based on Carrie Fisher's Hollywood struggle works better as a snapshot than as a complete film. Meryl Streep plays Suzanne Vale, a successful actress who is lost in her addictions. Her episodes are never as bombastic as Clean and Sober or other antidrug movies of the 1990s, however. Vale's a more lovable person, and as with all lovable people in Hollywood, other Hollywood people care for her: an understanding director (Gene Hackman), a philandering boyfriend (Dennis Quaid), and a bemused doctor (Richard Dreyfuss). But if you are going to talk about Fisher, you are going to mention her mom, Debbie Reynolds. And here Vale's mom is the die-hard Doris Mann, played with appropriate virtuosity by Shirley MacLaine. The love-hate mother-daughter relationship takes over the film in an entertaining way, with Fisher's sharp comic writing coming into play. You nearly forgive Vale's troubles for having to live under a hurricane like Mann (who goes into her nightclub act at the drop of a hat). The film's sweetest pleasure is seeing Streep loose and modern, nary a drab outfit or an accent in sight. Streep and director Mike Nichols make a risky--and rewarding--finale (fueled by the Oscar-nominated "I'm Checking Out" by Shel Silverstein) work effortlessly. --Doug Thomas

Book details for Postcards from the Edge

Postcards from the Edge was written by Carrie Fisher. The book was published in 1987 by Pocket. More information on the book is available on Amazon.com.

 

Read More About This Book

"I'm expecting a breakthrough any decade now..."POSTCARDS FROM THE EDGESuzanne Vale is funny and famous, a thirty-ish actress who has crash-landed in rehab, and navigated the humorous and harrowing byways of all of her addictions...even love. Tough yet f... Read More

"I'm expecting a breakthrough any decade now..."

POSTCARDS FROM THE EDGE

Suzanne Vale is funny and famous, a thirty-ish actress who has crash-landed in rehab, and navigated the humorous and harrowing byways of all of her addictions...even love. Tough yet fragile, she's hanging on -- and she's not sure why. There is her unsupporting cast of friends and lovers: Alex, an arrogantly handsome TV writer. Suzanne has a place in his heart...and maybe even in his new script. Jack, a producer and super-stud. His relationship with Suzanne is heavy on analysis and light on commitment. Lucy, her trusted gal pal. When the going gets rough, they charge away their blues on Rodeo Drive. Jesse, a novelist and the almost-too-good-to-be-true result of a "dating accident." His Niceness is boring Suzanne to death -- and driving her crazy with love.

Poignant, painful, excruciatingly funny, Carrie Fisher's bestseller is a dazzling survivor's tale, and "a wickedly shrewd, black-humor riff on the horrors of rehab and the hollows of Hollywood life" (People).