Sweet Dreams
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DVD details
Actor: Ann Wedgeworth, David Clennon, Ed Harris, James Staley, Jessica LangeBrand: EMI
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround; English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD, Letterboxed, NTSC, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.85:1
Running Time: 115 minutes
Published: 1999-06-01
DVD Release Date: 1999-06-22
Audience Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Studio: Hbo Home Video
DVD Reviews of Sweet Dreams
DVD Review: BITTERSWEET BIOPIC OF PATSY CLINE
Summary: 4 Stars
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.
Description of Sweet Dreams
A biographical film on the life of the late country singer Patsy Cline.Item Type: DVD Movie
Item Rating: PG13
Street Date: 02/03/04
Wide Screen: yes
Director Cut: no
Special Edition: no
Language: ENGLISH
Foreign Film: noSubtitles: no
Dubbed: no
Full Frame: no
Re-Release: no
Packaging: Sleeve
She wasn't a beauty queen, but country-music star Patsy Cline's voice was a thing of wonder: full-bodied, aching and dreamy at the same time. She came by the torchy emotions in her songs honestly, as shown in this biopic directed by Karel Reisz, rising from poor surroundings, literally forcing her talent on the Nashville establishment, all the while trying to survive an abusive marriage to a drinker. Though the script by Robert Getchell is standard Hollywood biography, the movie is more than watchable, thanks to a bone-deep performance by the always astonishing Jessica Lange and the counterpoint by Ed Harris as her loving but unreliable husband. The soundtrack features a basketful of Cline's hits, which Lange convincingly lip-synchs. --Marshall Fine