Network: HBO
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Review - "Mildred Pierce"
Reviewer: Charise Payne
Rating:
Mildred Pierce, a new five-part mini-series starring Kate Winslet and directed by Todd Haynes, is not the same as the 1945 weepy classic that earned Joan Crawford an Oscar. So if you think this is a re-make, you are sadly mistaken. Haynes took his inspiration for the mini-series from the original material, a novel written by James M. Cain, and then put
his own style on it.
Winslet stars as Mildred, a single mother living through the Depression. She waits tables to make a living and provide for her family. At the beginning of the series her husband leaves and her youngest daughter dies. She is traumatized and does the only thing she knows how to do: give all her remaining love to remaining daughter Veda (who's played as a child by Morgan Turner but by the fourth episode is replaced by Evan Rachel Wood).
Veda is a bratty, ambitious, ungrateful snob who makes fun of her mother's hard work and treats her mother like she is lesser. This is the hard part for an actress: do you make Mildred seem noble for her sacrifices or pathetic because she can’t see past how her daughter treats her?
Winslet chooses to make the character more approachable. She tones down Mildred's suffering to a series of pained looks that make you realize, she gets it...her daughter is a brat. It's not until we get to hour 5's big reveal do we truly understand Mildred and learn of Veda's worst sin.
The mini-series is full of great performances and is beautifully shot. It can be a bit slow at times but after all, it is the depression.
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