Postcards From the Edge

Carrie Fisher not so much adapts as rewrites her own autobiographical novel about her drug problems and show-biz comeback, shifting most of the emphasis away from a couple of boyfriends and toward her relationship with her mother (Debbie Reynolds in real life). Mike Nichols’s direction makes a very old-fashioned and effective Hollywood entertainment out of it, with Meryl Streep at her best in the Fisher part, Shirley MacLaine equally fine as her show-biz mother, and an all-star backup cast including Richard Dreyfuss, Dennis Quaid, Gene Hackman, and Mary Wickes. Among the pleasures to be found here are some amusing sidelong glances at how movies get made and the singing talent of Streep as well as MacLaine. There’s not much depth here, but Nichols does a fine job with the surface effects, and the wisecracks keep coming. (Lincoln Village, 900 N. Michigan, Old Orchard, Webster Place, Ford City, Norridge, Harlem-Cermak) Read more