Director Frank Perry simply sits back and lets Dunaway rip. He was either supremely untalented or he purposefully intended to sabotage her.
Comment
05/13/08
Mommie Dearest (1981)
55
%
Tomatometer
How does the Tomatometer work 
Reviews Counted:29
Fresh:16
Rotten:13
Average Rating:5.6/10
Synopsis: Based on the book by her adopted daughter Christina, MOMMIE DEAREST is the now-legendary tale of Hollywood superstar Joan Crawford (Faye Dunaway) and the lengths that she went to in order to... [More]
Starring: Faye Dunaway, Diana Scarwid, Steve Forrest, Howard Da Silva
Director: Frank Perry
Reviews for Mommie Dearest
Wire Hangers!
02/28/08
Dunaway creates the benchmark for harridans the world over but never entirely loses sympathy for her subject. It's a constant blast of high melodrama and camp.
10/30/07
It's rich, stimulating thought in spite of itself.
10/30/07
Director Frank Perry, who collaborated with three others (including producer Frank Yablans) on the script, gives it all a certain crazed conviction.
10/30/07
'No wire hangers -- ever!' That this apparently banal phrase has now achieved something like immortality is a reflection of the unbridled extravagance of Faye Dunaway's performance.
10/30/07
Dunaway does not chew scenery. Dunaway starts neatly at each corner of the set in every scene and swallows it whole, costars and all.
10/30/07
Top Critic...relies almost entirely on Dunaway's histrionics to propel the story forward - resulting in a movie that's good for a few unintentional laughs but little else.
07/15/06
Really no dafter, perhaps, than some of Joanie's own Warner Bros melodramas; the trouble is, it thinks it's Art.
06/24/06
A peculiar hybrid: a high-camp Hollywood bio flick about child abuse, elevated substantially above its sordid material by Faye Dunaway's obsessively committed interpretation of legndary star Joan Crawford.
06/20/06
Perry and Yablans fuse this formal schizophrenia with the cruelly episodic structure and fetishized period details of Hollywood biopics.
05/31/06
Deliciously entertaining trash.
09/28/05
High camp about child abuse... oy Faye!
09/09/05
I can't imagine who would want to subject themselves to this movie.
10/23/04
Top CriticBoth sadly terrifying (child abuse to the max) and a cult classic laughfest.
10/15/04
There is nothing to string the episodes together into a coherent drama, and no insight into Miss Crawford herself.
08/30/04
Top CriticNo review available.
07/02/04
Mommie Dearest features an intense and bold performance by Faye Dunaway as Joan Crawford.
01/31/04
No review available.
09/02/03
No review available.
08/22/03
What’s Hot On RT
Other News
Fresh Links
Featured
Win Glee DVDs 
We've got 20 copies of the hit TV series' Pilot Episode to giveaway.
New Moon Portraits
TIME offers us a closer look at the characters from the latest Twilight film.
Why Don't Australians Make Sci-fi?
The New Matilda's Lynden Barber looks at the recent success of low-budget sci-fi -- and asks the question.
Follow Rotten Tomatoes on Twitter
Get all the latest movie updates, reviews, interviews and features here.
Competitions
Win Star Wars prizes
Enough Prequel, Original Trilogy and Family Guy DVDs to fill a space cruiser
Win the entire 007 collection
Everything from Dr. No to Quantum of Solace could be yours.
Win Fight Club Special Editions and more
We're giving away the 10th Anniversary Blu-ray, plus Braveheart and the Rocky collection
IGN RSS Feeds