Sweet Dreams (1985)

PATSY'S MOTHER HATED IT!!!

When Hilda Hensely (Patsy's mother) saw this movie she said, "I saw it once. That was enough for me."
Hollywood took all the dramatic liberties and artistic license it could in the making of this movie. Jessica Lange's performance is one of her best but her watching her lip-synch while Cline's real voice was heard on the Soundtrack is distracting as their voices are entirely different. Lange tends to overdo it on the lip-syching and one can tell she is doing it. Not good. No disrespect to Lange but they should have hired an actress who could sing....like Sissy Spacek who sang all of Loretta Lynn's songs on "Coal Miner's Daughter."
Ed Harris plays Charlie Dick well enough but is extremely unlikeable. It is inacurrate at all counts to portray him as a wife-beater. Sure, Patsy had Charlie arrested a couple of times but their relationship was NOT as volatile as portrayed here. Ask any of Patsy's contemporaries who are still alive...they will corroborate this.
Many inacurracies taken on this film. Instead of making it "Patsy and Charlie focused" they should have done better by portraying Patsy's struggles to rise to fame in her career.....she went through a lot before she finally hit it big. This is glossed over and given minute status in the film.
The plane crash was over-dramatized and totally inacurrate. It happened at night during a rainstorm....not during the day and the motor did not conk out prior to the crash!
I would have like to have seen more interaction between Patsy and her siblings as well. There was almost none except the car crash (also inaccurately depicted) with her brother and none with her sister Sylvia (a simple presentation of a gift for her high school graduation doesn't count).
The best things about this film are:

1. Ann Wedgeworth's portrayal of HIlda Hensley, Patsy's mother. SHe is superb!! SHe should have at least gotten an Oscar nomination for her portrayal. She steals every scene she's in.

2. The recreation of the Grand Ole OPry.

3. The Music...the Soundtrack....great.

There is extreme profanity and sexual content in this film. Definitely not for the kiddies!


July 23, 2008

BITTERSWEET BIOPIC OF PATSY CLINE

Before I saw "Sweet Dreams," I knew that Patsy Cline had a string of country-pop hits like "I Fall To Pieces" and "Crazy"; and I knew that she died in a tragic plane crash in 1963. After I saw this movie, I was hooked-- a Patsy Cline fan for life!
This movie seems rather obviously inspired by the earlier success of Sissy Spacek as Loretta Lynn in "Coal Miner's Daughter." In "Daughter," Beverly D'Angelo played Patsy Cline and sang her own vocals. As good as D'Angelo was, (she received an Oscar nomination) you won't miss her here. Jessica Lange gives a full-bodied performance. She is not required to sing. What actress, no matter how talented, could hope to match the incomparable emotion and sound of Patsy Cline's singing voice? Instead, Jessica Lange lip-sinc's to Patsy Cline's vocals-- to absolute perfection; in much the same manner as Tammy Blanchard and Judy Davis lip-sinced to Judy Garland's legendary vocals in the superior 2001 TV biopic "Me And My Shadows: Life With Judy Garland."
Karel Reisz's 1985 biopic is very selective about which aspects of Patsy's life are depicted. None of Patsy's friends, such as Loretta Lynn, are portrayed here. Spanning 1956-1963, the movie focuses firmly on Patsy's struggle to the top of the music charts and her tumultuous, violent marriage to Charlie Dick. Ed Harris matches Lange in intensity all the way as heavy drinking, hard partying Charlie. The film depicts Patsy and Charlie as living, loving, and fighting with a passion. Ann Wedgeworth gives a strong supporting performance as Hilda Hensley, Patsy's mother, and John Goodman (from "Roseanne" and Lange's TV version of "A Streetcar Named Desire") appears as one of Charlie's drinking buddies.
I love how Jessica Lange portrays Patsy as a spirited, vulnerable, but extremely vibrant woman who seldom takes "stuff" from anybody. Like Sissy Spacek and Beverly D'Angelo before her, Jessica Lange received a much deserved Oscar nomination; and this is my favorite of Jessica Lange's movies and performances. When Charlie first sees her, he says, "Hey, I want you to get your coat, get in my car so we can get to know each other." Patsy instantly responds, "You want a lot, don't ya. Well, people in hell want ice water. That don't mean they get it!" She describes Charlie to her mother as "some clown with hot britches." Encountering Charlie for the second time at a bar, shrewd Patsy sizes him up perfectly, saying she knows exactly what he wants in the backseat of his car.
Much later, when Charlie lamely tries to explain why their house is a drunken mess, an exhausted Patsy (she has returned home from touring on the road) replies, "Obviouly, you've got me confused with someone who gives a s##%%t."
Patsy says she wants it all, and the film takes the firm position that Patsy definitely deserved to have it all. As we watch the film, we root for Patsy to succeed in her music career, in life, and in love. Reality is, of course, much uglier than that. Patsy may have wished for a house with yellow roses, but her life was definitely not a bed of roses. The worst thing about the script (traveling down an overly-familiar show-business biopic path) is that we see, or already know well, where it is going. The film may soften people and events, but it never completely sanitizes them for audience comfort. Scenes of drunken Charlie beating Patsy up, and the plane crash that killed Patsy and three others, are harrowing to watch. However, our knowledge of the bittersweet facts of Patsy Cline's life gives the intense performances an undercurrent of heartbreaking sadness. You will never forget Patsy Cline's incredible voice or Jessica Lange's incredible performance. July 17, 2008

Favorite movie

Great autobiography and just a good well acted movie. Watch it over and over. May 30, 2008

sweey dreams movie

great bio movie i know it is little older but interesting life story well told May 19, 2008

great movie

I watched this movie so many times. I am a huge fan of Patsy Cline. This is about some of her adult life and her untimely death that ended very tragic. She was and always will be one of the great country music female artist out there. April 19, 2008

More reviews at Amazon.com ...