Mildred Pierce HBO 2011: This does have some spoilers. Kate Winslet delivers an honest performance full of anxiety, passion, heartbreak and guts. She plays a woman ahead of her time and without apology - a character full of contradictions who gets what she wants. While the miniseries is long, it shows the delicate ups and downs of a single mother effected by the Great Depression. She is forced to get a job as a waitress, fearing her daughter's disapproval. Her younger daughter dies early in the film. I cannot say that Mildred was as heartbroken by that as she is endlessly throughout the film for being a constant disappointment to her daughter Veda. Veda, played like a perfect tennis opponent by Evan Rachel Wood is a performance not to be missed. Mildred ends up owning a corporation, making the dough, thriving after a divorce and losing it all quickly just to please an ungrateful and blatantly spiteful daughter. Guy Pierce spices things up as Mildred's lover and plays his famous coward role (Count of Monte Cristo, the Kings Speech) like a charm. This one is a surprise though and you have to watch to get to that gaping reaction towards the end of the film. (like you had all throughout Memento) Like all HBO movies and shows, your cable bill every month is worth the superb casting. Also true to HBO, this miniseries is a great snap shot of how it was for how it is now and something we can learn from as we get through the last four years of tough economic times. Though Mildred is considered to be a heroine, what I praise most is the fact that I did not agree with her most of the time, rather I was curious to ride the stock market rises and slumps of her journey.
Review of Mildred Pierce
