Mildred Pierce miniseries on HBO

skyvue · Apr 11, 2011

The waists on the men's trousers are too low. Odd that they went out of their way to put very short ties on all the men, but couldn't be bothered to make sure they were wearing high-waisted pants.

And the wife and I agree with many above: The pacing is far too slow. This could and should have been a four-hour project.

Spw4922 · Apr 11, 2011

Doctor Strange said:
Having now dragged myself through all five-plus hours of the miniseries, I confess to having liked it less and less as it went on. Quite apart from the endless shots of Mildred driving and looking concerned, too-long-held shots after characters left rooms, fetishistic lingering close-ups on nearly everything, too many sex scenes (and musical performance scenes)... etc., that could have easily been cut, I had enormous believability issues with the story.

I mean: every bitchy kid who's trained for years as a piano virtuoso turns out to be an outstanding coloratura soprano when she suddenly opens her mouth and sings for the first time when she's 18, right?!?

Remind me again why Monty disappears from the story for years, then reappears? And why does Mildred reconnect with him if he had ultimately been bad news the first time? Oh, and was he supposed to have had a sexual relationship with Veda back when she was a teen, or only after she turned into Evan Rachel Wood? (Ewwww!) And why would Mildred ultmately remarry her nice-but-ineffectual first husband?!?

The acting was excellent (I mean: I refuse to blame Wood - who did the best she could playing an impossible, utterly unbelieable character!) and the production was sumptuous... But it was impossible to be sympathetic to ANY of the characters, believe most of the plot points, or feel that there was any point to it beyond a voyeuristic visit to the 1930s. There was zero character development: Mildred was a plucky, hardworking, tough broad with a gooey emotional center from start to finish. Monty was a purposeless playboy, period. The younger daughter was a saintly sacrificial lamb (a la Beth in Little Women). And Veda was an over-the-top-drag-queen bad-seed monster at every age...

Anyway, I was pretty disappointed beyond the awesome visuals...

Doc, You just summed up my feelings on this quite well.

I was discussing this whole series with my lady friend after we finished watching it last night. Neither of us have read the book and have only passing knowledge of the first movie. We've enjoyed most of HBO's series, Big Love and Boardwalk Empire lately, but we can't figure out why Mildred Pierce was a choice for producing any kind of remake. We watched it based on HBO's rep for making pretty good TV series.

The subject matter may have been cutting edge lurid in 1941 (i believe that was the year of publication?) but, beyond the superfluous sex scenes and nudity of this remake, it was pretty dry stuff. We kept watching thinking it would get better...it didn't.

This might have been quite the barn burner in the 40's and a lot of it was very pretty visually, but I'm still wondering "Why"?

missjo · Apr 12, 2011

I don't mind the pacing.
I love the way it looks, generally.
But... the story just doesn't grab me.
The characters don't appeal to me, I simply don't really care about what happens next.
A shame.

I'm sure the book is great, but back then they wrote more exciting stories about more interesting people as well.
Perhaps the first movie had the right idea, stuff the entire story into just 111 minutes in stead of 5 (?) episodes of over an hour.
There just isn't very much to tell.
Call me boring but the stories of the poor and wretched, the insane, the wacky, or just plain criminal scumbags, is just more interesting to the likes of me.

skyvue · Apr 12, 2011

I don't mind slow pacing generally. I'm usually willing to go along for the ride at the pace the director wishes to set.

But many scenes in MP just seem pointlessly long, as if intentionally stretched out beyond expectation or justification.

Mike in Seattle · Apr 12, 2011

Doctor Strange said:
Having now dragged myself through all five-plus hours of the miniseries, I confess to having liked it less and less as it went on. Quite apart from the endless shots of Mildred driving and looking concerned, too-long-held shots after characters left rooms, fetishistic lingering close-ups on nearly everything, too many sex scenes (and musical performance scenes)... etc., that could have easily been cut, I had enormous believability issues with the story.

I mean: every bitchy kid who's trained for years as a piano virtuoso turns out to be an outstanding coloratura soprano when she suddenly opens her mouth and sings for the first time when she's 18, right?!?

Remind me again why Monty disappears from the story for years, then reappears? And why does Mildred reconnect with him if he had ultimately been bad news the first time? Oh, and was he supposed to have had a sexual relationship with Veda back when she was a teen, or only after she turned into Evan Rachel Wood? (Ewwww!) And why would Mildred ultmately remarry her nice-but-ineffectual first husband?!?

The acting was excellent (I mean: I refuse to blame Wood - who did the best she could playing an impossible, utterly unbelieable character!) and the production was sumptuous... But it was impossible to be sympathetic to ANY of the characters, believe most of the plot points, or feel that there was any point to it beyond a voyeuristic visit to the 1930s. There was zero character development: Mildred was a plucky, hardworking, tough broad with a gooey emotional center from start to finish. Monty was a purposeless playboy, period. The younger daughter was a saintly sacrificial lamb (a la Beth in Little Women). And Veda was an over-the-top-drag-queen bad-seed monster at every age...

Anyway, I was pretty disappointed beyond the awesome visuals...

I agree as well. I bought the book, but haven't gotten too far into it as yet, but I flipped around a bit after seeing the complete mini-series and sadly, the mini-series seems to have been following the book pretty well. But getting to the end of the show last night, all I could think was "I held off dishing up dinner so as to not miss a minute of THIS?!?!?"

The Joan Crawford version is WAY better than this. I think I can honestly say that that movie version is one time where the movie ended up excellent compared to the book. It's like two completely different stories, and Hollywood almost invariably ruins the original story. And I was SURE, having not read the book, that Hollywood had to tone down a lot of what the book contained to get it past the Hayes office. Surprisingly, Hollywood took something pretty mediocre and turned out an amazing movie by comparison.

"Lets get stinko," was the final line of the book and HBO mini-series. After sitting through all five parts, I felt the same. Outside of the great visuals - what a disappointment.

Doctor Strange · Apr 12, 2011

I see the critics were pretty divided - and many felt as we did:

http://www.metacritic.com/tv/mildred-pierce/season-1/critic-reviews

Lady Day · Apr 12, 2011

To me the bottom line of the series was Mildred can't so anything without anyone's say so. She can't start a business unless someone tells her she can, she can't relax unless she's given permission, and she can't disown an insanely ridiculous daughter unless her husband (twice over) tells her it's okay.

The film was lovely, no doubt, but come on. It was emotionally exhausting to try and seep some sort of emotion other than spite, hate or revenge from the main characters. HOW in the world do they attract such amazing people to be in their lives. The supporting cast of friends etc were almost polar opposite supportive, cheerful, optimistic. If that was intentional, I just don't care at this point.

I've never seen a situation where acidic ungrateful characters are rewarded with businesses, wealth and amazingly rare talent. The *moment* Monty said "Im sleeping in the study" I knew he was sleeping with the daughter. After a while I just glazed over and looked at the pretty.
By the by, Mildred looked *amazing* in her wedding dress! And I could NOT for the life of me believe that voice was coming out of that tiny Vita. Does anyone know the actual vocalist? I cant find any credit on IMDB.

LD

Spw4922 · Apr 12, 2011

It's Sumi Jo, a Korean coloratura.

http://filmmusicreporter.com/2011/04/08/mildred-pierce-soundtrack-details/

Doctor Strange · Apr 12, 2011

I read in an interview that Evan Rachel Wood learned to breathe and sing operatically, and learned the pieces as well as she could, in order to make the lip-syncing believable. In terms of "ordinary" music, she's actually quite a good singer (see Across The Universe), but she's no coloratura. Sumi Jo was chosen because she's similar in size to Wood, to make the timbre and size of Veda's voice more believable.

J. M. Stovall · Apr 15, 2011

skyvue said:
The waists on the men's trousers are too low. Odd that they went out of their way to put very short ties on all the men, but couldn't be bothered to make sure they were wearing high-waisted pants.
.

I think the pants were made high-waisted, but the actors didn't wear them properly. Just look at how the pants are all bunched up instead of having only a slight break at the most for that period. I think I've read somewhere before that this is a common problem with period films. The modern actor, use to wearing low modern pants, just cannot seem to bring himself to wear the pants properly. They don't want to feel like their grandpa. In stark contrast I think all the ladies clothes looked great!

Tomasso · Apr 15, 2011

J. M. Stovall said:
I think I've read somewhere before that this is a common problem with period films. The modern actor, use to wearing low modern pants, just cannot seem to bring himself to wear the pants properly.

I've read that too. I believe it was in an interview with a female film costumer.

Lady Day · Apr 16, 2011

Most men and women don't even know where their natural waist is.

LD

JoanieCraw · Apr 29, 2011

Not sure if this has been asked yet?? Enjoyed the music from the mini-series. I am a coach, and would like to use some of that music for my students. Does anyone know if it was credited somewhere?

scotrace · Apr 29, 2011

JoanieCraw said:
Not sure if this has been asked yet?? Enjoyed the music from the mini-series. I am a coach, and would like to use some of that music for my students. Does anyone know if it was credited somewhere?

Good News: The entire soundtrack is available on iTunes. Search "Mildred."

Welcome to The Fedora Lounge.

Feraud · Apr 29, 2011

skyvue said:
I don't mind slow pacing generally. I'm usually willing to go along for the ride at the pace the director wishes to set.

But many scenes in MP just seem pointlessly long, as if intentionally stretched out beyond expectation or justification.

Agreed. I found this mini-series a chore to get through.

JoanieCraw · Apr 30, 2011

Darn....we're an anti-Apple household here. Dont ask, long story. Does anyone know any of the artists and songs?

Doctor Strange · Apr 30, 2011

The soundtrack CD is going to be released next week. I couldn't find track listings in the usual places (Amazon, All Music Guide, IMDB, Wiki), but I'm sure they'll be available shortly.

But I'm not sure if it's just Carter Burwell's score, or if it includes the 30s pop tunes and opera arias...

Lady Day · Apr 30, 2011

The score was one of the highlights of the entire piece.

LD

Feraud · May 4, 2011

Mike in Seattle said:
"Lets get stinko," was the final line of the book and HBO mini-series. After sitting through all five parts, I felt the same. Outside of the great visuals - what a disappointment.

Agreed. Quite a disappointment.

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