Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle (1994)

Slow pace in the most part of the movie.

It is a performances centric movie

The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

It is encouraging that the film ends so strongly.Otherwise, it wouldn't have been a particularly memorable film

As rich an evocation of 1920s Manhattan as "Mrs. Parker" is, one keeps wishing it would offer more...or at least surprise us with some splendorous chatter amongst the haves and have-nots of the literary world. Dorothy Parker, married to a morphine-addicted ex-soldier and recently fired as a writer for Vanity Fair, goes through a succession of men and magazine-published "doo-dads" before gaining a reputation as one of the greatest wits to come out of Depression-era New York City. Hollywood beckoned, but did not satisfy her--nor did life in general, which may be why she talked in a world-weary, dry-arch style which gave the impression of a woman with many disappointments in her closet. This is fascinating subject matter for the movies, yet co-writer and director Alan Rudolph barely dramatizes the material at all; he's so closed off from what's happening on the screen, many sequences plod by without any directorial nourishment. Certainly the large and interestingly cast group of actors on display are worth watching, though there are possibly too many real-life personalities rushing by on the screen, everyone nonchalantly vying for time. Parker's goodbye-cruel-war attitude did not back her up in the end and, living until the year 1967, she survived most of her Algonquin Round Table cohorts. The film does not sentimentalize her or put her up on a pedestal, but neither does it help us to understand the tragedienne living beyond the wincing prose and words of woe. Jennifer Jason Leigh's lead portrayal divided the critics in 1994, yet she's definitely on to something special here. With a more incisive treatment, she may have delivered a true triumph. **1/2 from ****

---Who was the target audience of this film? People who were really interested in Parker would have to find this disappointing.----- so...We spend a lot of time indoors/While Leigh suffers from lockjaw/With boozy loud insufferable boors /That self-indulgent Parker sawThe costumes great, production high,/ But what is that she is saying?/ Parker did drone, but diction, sigh,/ Is needed above the other's braying.Paltrow, so often wan and fey/ Shows marvelous character actress prospect /She towers above this teeny fray /But her humor and tartness are not lost yet.Leigh is lovely, dewy and luminous /Her vocal imitation comes and goes/ Will someone unclench her jaw for us /So we can decipher her character's woes?Leigh's smaller than a umbrella stand/ Matthew Broderick is a lovely pairing /The story only starts when he enters, grand /And sexy and strong and stirring.Cambell Scott is the backbone of this /Screeching brood, he doesn't contest a fraction. /He calmly settles back in bliss/ And steals every scene, every action.Parker fans, I think, would largely not/ Feel compelled to this trendy casting spread. / With this posey art, we can bet on spot/ That she's now even more happy that she's dead.

Jennifer Jason Leigh does an amazing job as she shows her true acting ability in Mrs. Parker. However, the movie in which she had an amazing performance was far from an amazing movie. While the cast of actors in the movie are terrific and the production value with the costumes are great, where was the story? Call mew crazy, but I am one of 99% of the world who does not know who Mrs. Parker was. Therefore, I was left in the dark with everyone else who still did not know who they heck she was by the end of the movie. OK, she was a great writer and poet, but why couldn't the story better portray that and tells the audience more about her accomplishments. Watching a table full of fast talking "know it alls" was far from enjoyable. Jennifer Jason Leigh built and built on her character but eventually tipped over when the audience stopped caring what the movie was about. If this is about her and her failed attempt at love, this was a slow melodrama that left the audience wanting more of a plot. If this was the true story of a woman that was before her time, the move was far from completion as the movie only scratched the surface at what her life was about. The ending credits did nothing for Mrs. Parker's legacy. It's nice that the movie didn't show one African American, but Mrs. Parker leaves her estate to Martin Luther King Jr.. Was that just thrown in there to give Mrs. Parker some credit for spending most of her life depressed and writing about it? Don't get me wrong, Jennifer Jason Leigh did a great job, but she received little credit for her role because the movie itself sunk with or without her performance.

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...