Joan Rivers writes such insightful, razor-sharp books about her life and her family that it's an automatic disappointment to see she and her daughter Melissa playing themselves in a TV-movie written by somebody else. What happened to this woman's voice, to her sense of truth? Nearly everything in this biographical drama rings false. After Joan's career is broadsided by bad ratings and press, her manager-husband takes his own life, leading the comedienne and her only child to battle amongst themselves before finding comfort in survival. There's a quick moment in the second-half that is well-realized (Joan attempting to date again, but finding the whole process hurtful), however the heated arguments between mother and daughter fail to come off (they may work as a camp). This TV-movie isn't badly made, and obviously has the intriguing factor of having the two principals playing themselves, but it needed a lighter, more deft and flexible touch. Director Oz Scott barrels through as if he's filming "Ordinary People--The Sequel".
Tears and Laughter: The Joan and Melissa Rivers Story (1994 TV Movie)
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One of the worst movies ever made.
bufster331 January 2006
This is a truly dreadful movie. It had some of the worst acting I have ever seen. Melissa Rivers has no talent as an actress. Joan Rivers is a good comedienne but she should never try to do drama. If they needed a cathartic experience to help them heal then they should have just written a book and gone to therapy. How self important can you be? Melissa was so bad that she did not even know what word to emphasize in a sentence. Of course Joan Rivers should love her daughter and try to help her in her career but to promote her in this way is just in poor taste. I'm very sorry for their tragic loss but this movie was just tacky. If it were not about such a sad topic I might say that it could be worth watching with friends to make fun of but the subject matter is too sad for that. Give this one a miss for your own sake.
An exploitation of egos.
mark.waltz8 January 2015
Warning: Spoilers
Tragedy is private. I believe that to be true when anybody, celebrity or not, has their personal lives strewn across the front pages of the free press. That is not news, I scream at TV journalists when they prefer to reveal gossip and dirt rather than the consequential happenings that truly make the world go around and have a greater impact on my day than the private scandals of people I don't know or necessarily care about. Even when well meaning, it still comes off as bad taste, and I'd rather get myself involved in the lives of fictional characters or those long deceased rather than someone desperate to see their name in lights even if they complain about what happens as the camera bulbs are flashing. You know what they say about good intentions.
In the case of Joan Rivers and her daughter whom I knew nothing about other than what I was forced to watch on the news (usually while in the kitchen making my morning coffee), I totally sympathized with them over the sudden suicide of Joan's husband and Melissa's father, Edgar Rosenberg. Having dealt with sudden death (both suicide and non-suicide, but unexpected none the less), I really could feel compassion towards them. But even though this comes with a public service announcement with the two women discussing a hotline for survivors of suicide, there is a definite feeling of self-serving, and it goes way beyond that thanks mostly to what occurred after the movie concludes, up to the present day thanks to Joan's recent tragic death.
As an early fan of Rivers' work, I must admit that I was curious over how this would be presented when it first aired on T.V. I still had my original copy of the video, so four months after Joan's death, I pulled it out just to see if it had gotten better over time or simply became a moving tabloid. The later becomes obviously true because nobody in their right mind can play themselves going through probably the worst circumstances anybody can imagine. Then tack on the fact that Joan and Melissa ended up becoming partners after this in a serious of fashion attacks on celebrities, and shows you that they really learned nothing about compassion or humanity from their tragedy, only making their desperation for the spotlight more obvious.
Certainly, there are going to be rolled eyes when Rivers mentions Elizabeth Taylor being at Edgar's funeral considering how she had for years made her the butt of many of her jokes. Unlike Phyllis Diller, Rivers' jokes (while sometimes self deprecating) just got more mean-spirited as she got older, sometimes to the point of being pure evil just to get a laugh. Her repeated joke about her husband not calling out her name while making love just so he wouldn't wake her up is truly tacky beyond belief, not because Edgar was dead, but because it gave the impression of rape. Joan and Melissa do here (and would continue to do so in the future) what they ridiculed other celebrities for doing, so if anything, this movie fails drastically because it is all about hypocrisy and exposes a darkness that perhaps they may not have wanted the public to see.
I also didn't find Melissa's tragic romance with a fellow college student to be particularly winning of sympathy either even though the actor playing him was much better playing somebody else than she was playing herself. My sympathy goes to the character, if they did exist, for not having ended up married into that messed up family. Dorothy Lyman comes off unscathed, pretty much because, as Joan's devoted assistant, she really doesn't have much to do. If any lesson can be learned from this, that is to headline seeking celebrities, write a book, don't star in a movie of your own life. You live it every day and either learn to become stronger or grow weaker in the face of adversity. And for the dirt seeking public, as Joan herself used to say, "Grow Up!"
In the case of Joan Rivers and her daughter whom I knew nothing about other than what I was forced to watch on the news (usually while in the kitchen making my morning coffee), I totally sympathized with them over the sudden suicide of Joan's husband and Melissa's father, Edgar Rosenberg. Having dealt with sudden death (both suicide and non-suicide, but unexpected none the less), I really could feel compassion towards them. But even though this comes with a public service announcement with the two women discussing a hotline for survivors of suicide, there is a definite feeling of self-serving, and it goes way beyond that thanks mostly to what occurred after the movie concludes, up to the present day thanks to Joan's recent tragic death.
As an early fan of Rivers' work, I must admit that I was curious over how this would be presented when it first aired on T.V. I still had my original copy of the video, so four months after Joan's death, I pulled it out just to see if it had gotten better over time or simply became a moving tabloid. The later becomes obviously true because nobody in their right mind can play themselves going through probably the worst circumstances anybody can imagine. Then tack on the fact that Joan and Melissa ended up becoming partners after this in a serious of fashion attacks on celebrities, and shows you that they really learned nothing about compassion or humanity from their tragedy, only making their desperation for the spotlight more obvious.
Certainly, there are going to be rolled eyes when Rivers mentions Elizabeth Taylor being at Edgar's funeral considering how she had for years made her the butt of many of her jokes. Unlike Phyllis Diller, Rivers' jokes (while sometimes self deprecating) just got more mean-spirited as she got older, sometimes to the point of being pure evil just to get a laugh. Her repeated joke about her husband not calling out her name while making love just so he wouldn't wake her up is truly tacky beyond belief, not because Edgar was dead, but because it gave the impression of rape. Joan and Melissa do here (and would continue to do so in the future) what they ridiculed other celebrities for doing, so if anything, this movie fails drastically because it is all about hypocrisy and exposes a darkness that perhaps they may not have wanted the public to see.
I also didn't find Melissa's tragic romance with a fellow college student to be particularly winning of sympathy either even though the actor playing him was much better playing somebody else than she was playing herself. My sympathy goes to the character, if they did exist, for not having ended up married into that messed up family. Dorothy Lyman comes off unscathed, pretty much because, as Joan's devoted assistant, she really doesn't have much to do. If any lesson can be learned from this, that is to headline seeking celebrities, write a book, don't star in a movie of your own life. You live it every day and either learn to become stronger or grow weaker in the face of adversity. And for the dirt seeking public, as Joan herself used to say, "Grow Up!"
SHOULD Have Been Worse
TheFearmakers13 September 2022
Whenever Joan Rivers was on Howard Stern's radio show, he and co-host Robin Quivers would tease Joan about this melodramatic "saga" as Stern called it, and Joan would laugh along... It's a TV-movie about how Joan and her daughter Melissa, playing themselves, dealt with their husband/dad's suicide...
Well it is bad, but not bad enough as Joan's acting is almost-okay but she's trying too hard not to seem like she's trying... so it becomes vacant, boring, the polar opposite of what kind of person she really is, on stage or as a guest on talk shows... She even does standup within the movie, and ironically her overacting is at its paramount here when it should be the most natural... Imagine Jack Nicklaus's biopic and he can't even swing a club correctly...
Meanwhile it's Melissa who goes all-out-overboard for a screeching Emmy, chewing the scenery while arguing with her mom or her drug addict beau (Gil from Beverly Hills 90210), but, she too plays it just safely enough; it's like watching a drama student's dissertation and the student gets a C-minus...
Overall, this could have been more fun if Joan put some real energy into the role of herself... who by then she should've known much better... which wouldn't improve on already terrible script but it'd be more fun to wallow in the unintentional humor, which is what nighttime soap yarns are for.
Well it is bad, but not bad enough as Joan's acting is almost-okay but she's trying too hard not to seem like she's trying... so it becomes vacant, boring, the polar opposite of what kind of person she really is, on stage or as a guest on talk shows... She even does standup within the movie, and ironically her overacting is at its paramount here when it should be the most natural... Imagine Jack Nicklaus's biopic and he can't even swing a club correctly...
Meanwhile it's Melissa who goes all-out-overboard for a screeching Emmy, chewing the scenery while arguing with her mom or her drug addict beau (Gil from Beverly Hills 90210), but, she too plays it just safely enough; it's like watching a drama student's dissertation and the student gets a C-minus...
Overall, this could have been more fun if Joan put some real energy into the role of herself... who by then she should've known much better... which wouldn't improve on already terrible script but it'd be more fun to wallow in the unintentional humor, which is what nighttime soap yarns are for.
If you love melodrama in the old Hollywood sense, and if you love Joan Rivers, you'll love this!
MyMovieTVRomance26 February 2023
This movie is rather remarkable! I can't think of another time when two people played themselves in a biopic to such effect. I'm sure it's happened, but I'm not aware of it.
It's amazing that Joan and Melissa were able to pull this off! It had to hurt, and it couldn't have been easy, but they did a very good job. I almost feel guilty for liking this, since it's a true story, but it plays like a sudsy 1980s melodrama a la Dynasty or something! There is a glamour to it, thanks to the grandiose nature of its star, Joan Rivers, and I appreciate this movie as a nice and bittersweet melodrama. I love it for that! I'm just sorry for them that it's true.
Good movie for anyone who likes "woman's pictures" as they used to say in old Hollywood. Minus some of the crude jokes from Rivers, I could totally see fellow Joan i.e. Crawford starring in this!
And on another note, I was again reminded by this movie, just how much warmer, more genuine, and weighty TV movies from back in the day were compared to now- when they seem so fake and amateur. That is yet another reason to love this movie.
It's amazing that Joan and Melissa were able to pull this off! It had to hurt, and it couldn't have been easy, but they did a very good job. I almost feel guilty for liking this, since it's a true story, but it plays like a sudsy 1980s melodrama a la Dynasty or something! There is a glamour to it, thanks to the grandiose nature of its star, Joan Rivers, and I appreciate this movie as a nice and bittersweet melodrama. I love it for that! I'm just sorry for them that it's true.
Good movie for anyone who likes "woman's pictures" as they used to say in old Hollywood. Minus some of the crude jokes from Rivers, I could totally see fellow Joan i.e. Crawford starring in this!
And on another note, I was again reminded by this movie, just how much warmer, more genuine, and weighty TV movies from back in the day were compared to now- when they seem so fake and amateur. That is yet another reason to love this movie.
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