Very Cool!!!

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

Ok... Let's be honest. It cannot be the best movie but is quite enjoyable. The movie has the potential to develop a great plot for future movies

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

It's incredible that neither Jessica Lange nor Kim Stanley received the Oscar they were nominated for in this gripping film of a true story of a Hollywood actress who didn't make it because of her own over-brilliant personality, getting into conflict with everyone, having problems with adjusting to a society she couldn't agree with from the beginning; and although the film differs slightly from the true story, at large it sticks to the absolute truth at least psychologically. Jessica Lange is just formidable, and this must be her best performance. The interesting thing is that she actually very much looks like Frances Farmer, she was in reality just as beautiful as Jessica Lange if not even more, and her personality in Jessica Lange's impersonation couldn't be more convincing. Her mother Kim Stanley accomplishes a similar feat, and all the other actors tune well in to make this film as perfect a documentary biography as could be accomplished. To this comes the softening and almost seducing music of John Barry gilding the hard lines of the picture and making it more digestible, while my only objection is against the lobotomy ingredient, which is the one departure from reality. Although the terrible nightmare scenes from the asylum had to be included, since they were true, the exaggeration of the lobotomy was unnecessary. Perhaps it was just put there to end the traumatic hospital sequences.Frances Farmer became a legend, and by this film the legend was given an extra injection of continued eternity, and it's a uniquely fascinating portrait of an over-talented actress at odds with a reality, especially Hollywood at that time, that in no way was humanly acceptable.

This biopic of Frances Farmer traces her life from outspoken teen to Hollywood starlet, followed by long periods of mental illness and barbaric treatment in institutions.Jessica Lange is magnificent as Frances; her performance is riveting and heartbreaking. Sam Shepard co-stars as her lover and Kim Stanley is excellent as her mother.It is never clearly established whether Frances was really mentally ill or just a very high-strung and hard-to-handle alcoholic. The conditions she faced in the asylum were brutal and these scenes are very unpleasant.The whole film is a treat on one hand, as the acting is flawless. The story, however, is unceasingly grim, depressing and exhausting and I won't watch it again.

I hadn't really remembered who Frances Farmer was until this poignant film was made. This is a rags to riches to insanity true story of Farmer's life. Lange is supported by Kim Stanley who plays Frances' mother Lillian (both were nominated for a 1983 Academy Award!) and Sam Shepard, who plays Harry York. Frances Farmer was ahead of her time in the ways she opinionated herself and the outspokenness with which she lived her life. Treated very badly by the same studio system that made her a star and her own mother's betrayal, Frances' descent into madness and Lange's impeccable acting makes this movie a must to see and, perhaps, own.

A towering performance is depicted by Jessica Lange in her Oscar nominated performance for best actress in 1982. It could only take a Meryl Streep of "Sophie's Choice" to beat her out.Lange is absolutely shattering and mesmerizing as the actress who had everything and gave it all away courtesy of mental illness.There are some parallels here to the great "Ill Cry Tomorrow" of 1955. Both Lillian Roth and Jessica Lange had domineering mothers who ruined their respective lives. Both women never were suited nor wanted the life of the Hollywood jet-set.Lange does an outstanding job as a non-conformist whose tragic life can never be forgotten.The picture also depicts a very sad state of mental health in this country during the 1930s and 1940s. The institutions themselves were nothing more than factories turning out unsatisfactory human products.Kim Stanley merited her supporting nomination as Farmer's over-possessive mother. Ironically, Lange beat her out for the supporting award that same year for "Tootsie."Sam Shepherd is equally effective as the love of her life during all her trials and tribulations. Non-conformist Clifford Odets really comes off as a traitor to non-conformity.