The movie is about Joan Crawford, specifically through the lens of her adopted daughter Christina, and their tumultuous relationship. When the cameras are rolling Joan is a loving mother and Christina is as alarmingly obedient as a child in a horror movie. Outside of that Joan routinely flies off the handle and often takes it out on her daughter. She loses her contract with MGM and hacks up the garden in a way that made us wonder if she was going to hack her kids next. She goes into Christina's closet and flips out when she finds a wire hanger that she then uses as a switch it whip her with. Her son Christopher is mostly shown tied to a bed without further explanation during the childhood years and then disappears from the film until the very end. Even when Christina gets older, she gets shipped off to boarding school (seemingly for interrupting her mother flirting with a guy), then taken out of boarding school by her mother for making out with a guy and sent to a convent school. As an adult, Joan chokes her out at one point for not doing an interview perfectly, and when Christina is in the hospital with cancer, Joan decides to replace her on the soap opera she's on in a wild move. The film ends with Joan dying and her children getting nothing in the will but the last word, implying the biography that Christina will write. Overall, the relationship is really hard to draw conclusions about other than it's really really unhealthy.
With this movie it's tempting to say just to watch a highlight reel, but the problem with a highlight reel is that it would likely take away from how absolutely random the really insane parts are. Even parts that aren't about Joan flipping out sometimes get elevated in a comical way just because of her tendency to bellow things rather than say them. It's worth it to watch the movie once, but you have to be prepared for parts of it to feel a bit drawn out.
Spoon Rating: 5
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