Paper Dolls

This film has it all - outstanding fashion, wonderful performances, and well developed characters. Daryl Hannah nearly breaks your heart at the end of the film, in the same vein as Angelina Jolie in "Gia". Loosely based on Brooke Shields and Terry Shields, Daryl Hannah plays a young model managed by her pushy stage Mom played by Joan Hackett. Her life changes when she meets Laurie, a regular high school student brought into the modeling world. Everything said in this movie, is said with sincerity, and real dramatics. It doesn't take any cheap shots. You can find this movie on YouTube, it is worth watching!

When I saw this movie back 1982, I immediately thought of Brooke Shields. Taryn Blake was just a blonde version of Brooke Shields. The character and and Julia Blake were just Brooke and Teri Shields disguised. Julia Blake was manipulative, just like Teri Shields is manipulative. Brooke Shields modeled as a baby, just like Taryn Blake did. Teri Blake lived off of Brooke's money for years. This movie was very realistic in the portrayal of the ups and downs of the professional modeling world. Julia Blake was the perfect example of the pushy stage mother who will stop at nothing to get what she wants. Taryn was just a pawn in the whole game, not getting to have a real childhood in her life.

As a teenager I loved this movie. Everytime it came on television I would watch it- and it appeared often!. The film centres around two models, Taryn Blake (Daryl Hannah)who has been a model her whole life and is the most famous teen model in America. While Laurie Caswell (Alexandra Paul)is just starting out but soon climbs to the top along side Taryn. The two are at first enemies, but soon become best friends. This is soap opera at its very best, its pretty to look at, quite trashy but very watchable. If it's ever on late one night, stay up and watch it, you might like it, and if you don't at least you will be able to spot many familiar faces.

I have seen this TV movie numerous times, and in fact have it still on video. I have not yet transferred it to DVD for "modern viewing". I still find the movie enjoyable to watch, sometimes happy, sad, and with Joan Collins playing the cold, calculating agent, thoroughly stereotypical (at least in my experience). As the lead Daryl Hannah (Taryn Blake)is a surprisingly well-rounded actress in the character, with Alexandra Paul (future Baywatch star) a good side-kick as Laurie Caswell. Although the movie is primarily about Laurie becoming a model, my focus was always pulled to Daryl's character of Taryn, wanting to be successful, constantly pushed and pressured by her mother, yet yearning for a "normal" life. This movie has obvious parallels with the life of Brooke Shields and her relationship with her mother and, although this was brought up at the time of release in the media, producers apparently denied that it was based on Brooke Shields life. Still a good watch even today.

I had to see PAPER DOLLS in January 2022 but back then it was nowhere to be found. Time passed, and last June someone uploaded it on Youtube, to my extreme joy. But when I finally saw it I felt a bit cheated. Now I'll explain.

Julia Blake (Joan Hackett) and Dinah Caswell are two women that think their young daughters Taryn Blake (Daryl Hannah) and Laurie Caswell should be models so, after a meeting with boss Racine (Joan Collins) the mothers will make their daughters enter the business even tho Taryn has to pass a maths exam and Laurie has to graduate, and in fact trouble is on the way.

The concept looked good, after all two years later it inspired a TV show. But what ruined the movie for me was the young leads' whiny nature (especially the brunette, and she needed to be rounded up), the fact that their mother were very approving of the trashy business their daughters were entering and its overall shallow nature.

One positive tho, and that's what didn't make me give a 1 or 2. It launched the careers of Daryl Hannah (who would go on to star in SPLASH, ROXANNE, the two KILL BILLs and even put me a like on a comment on Instagram) and Eric Stoltz (who debuted in 1978 with THE GRASS IS ALWAYS GREENER OVER THE SEPTIC TANK, after this he played one of Sean Penn's friends in FAST TIMES AT RIDGEMONT HIGH and while he was fired from BACK TO THE FUTURE and THE KARATE KID he would make lots of great movies such as PULP FICTION, FLUKE. MASK and THE WATERDANCE for naming a few), so you can survive a bad debut and go on to greater things.

Overall, if you saw the TV show PAPER DOLLS or you are into these shallow things, then watch it since it's finally available again.