Good movie but grossly overrated

best movie i've ever seen.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

I didn't like ANY of the actors in this film. All of them do their jobs pretty badly. The fault for this probably lies with the director. Essentially, they told a, possibly interesting story, but they did so very incompetently. I was totally incapable to forget that the lead actress was acting. She was absolutely false from start to finish and I found myself strongly disliking her. The movie is full of scenes with Parker facing the camera in a kind of Shakesperean aside which enabled us to hear her poetry. The poetry is OK I guess but was murdered by the wooden acting and the funny voice that Parker was forcing out without a pause. The rest of the movie is just boring and I couldn't bring myself to finish the thing. I wonder if those people were really as tedious and pretentiously awful as they were portrayed as being. I guess I will never know. If you are interested in Parker, read her original work. This film will do nothing at all to endear her to you.

There must lie an interesting story somewhere in the lives of some of these famous writers but this utterly depressing, anecdotal bore doesn't seem to find any.I think I get what the director Alan Rudolph is trying to show us here, that everybody thinks it must have been a laugh-riot to live in the swinging 20s, especially if you were a member of this group of despicable people, but that the reality was quite different. Come on, there must have been somebody who gave a damn about another one in the group. All what is shown, is that these people were trying to be so aloof that they all died unhappy.I like the point, given by another comment on this page, that you really have to research deeper than watching what there is here. Get some insight from other sources than this debacle. Some have praised the performances here. I say, that there aren't any, it's just plain mannerisms. It's just people trying to look the part and trying to feel like the character they are playing. Learn how to transcend your character. This is especially true about Jennifer Jason Leigh and I think she is horrible here. She obviously wanted to take the extreme method actor's approach but for that very reason, the performance seem forced. If you want to see much better acting of a real giant in the same field, watch Cary Elwes in Cradle Will Rock as John Houseman.

Dorothy Parker (August 22, 1893 – June 7, 1967) , the embodiment of the witty, cynical and intellectual Flapper par excellence.You have to stay constantly alert to be able to fully enjoy the very swift, sharp-witted, spicy dialogues, the intellectual, anti-conventional and revolutionary verbal ping-pong between 1920' writers, dramaturges, playwrights and poets during the very much 'alcoholised' prohibition period. It depicts the members of the Algonquin Round Table, a celebrated group of New York City writers, critics, actors and wits, a sort of an American response to 1920' Paris artists congregation. We learn about Dorothy's beginning as an editor and journalist, her lovers, husbands, collaborators and her move to Hollywood. The events (filmed in colour) are juxtaposed with brief black and white insets in which Jennifer Jason Leigh is reciting Dorothy's beautifully haunting poems to immerse us into the thoughts and persona of the famous writer.My compliments to the Soundtrack and editing: loved every tune of it and every note fitted just perfectly its corresponding image!Unfortunately the movie concentrates on Dorothy's emotional development and her 'Vicious Circle' (Algonquin Round Table) and left completely out her left-wing tendencies such as being an advocate of causes like civil liberties and civil rights, and her brushing with the Black List. Also, I was missing more references to the movies she actually wrote. Even if you are not knowledgeable about Dorothy Parker and her works, yet into 1930's movies, or love movies like 'The Great Gatsby', then you will very much enjoy this movie about Hollywood's Golden Age of movie making.All in all: visually ravishing, emotionally titillating and intellectually stimulating, I will definitely look up some more of Dorothy's poems.The Star Cast: Jennifer Jason Leigh, Campbell Scott, Peter Gallagher, Stanley Tucci, Matthew Broderick, Gwenyth Paltrow, Jennifer Beals, Lili Taylor, Martha Plimpton, Wallace Shawn, Stephen Baldwin.

Dorothy Parker was certainly a character and a witty writer, but the lives of writers are typically hard to film for obvious reasons. This movie does an adequate job and Jennifer Jason Leigh turns in the best possible performance (as we've come to expect from her). The script and the other characterizations are a bit thin but this movie is definitely worth it of you happen to be a Parker fan. Men don't make passes...