The Karen Carpenter Story

Karen Carpenter had a singing voice that only comes along in the world every few decades. It was instantly recognizable. She had a full three octaves of range, with the lower two of those possessing a rich timbre and an uncanny ability for a very soothing slow-vibrato (my term).

Karen's problems were partly caused by her desire to be accepted and were intensely driven by her stage-demon of a mother, Agnes Carpenter. The problems perpetuated because her family lived in denial that a problem existed. They refused outside help until the damage to Karen's heart from her abuse of ipecac (which she eventually discontinued because she feared that it would damage her vocal cords) was irreversible.

The acting in the movie is good, and the songs are well-mixed, but it takes unreasonable liberties with reality. Over half of the scenes that Barry Morrow wrote were rejected by the family (mainly by Agnes Carpenter), who didn't want any negativity. It drove Morrow to the point where he refused to work on the movie any longer. His replacement had the same problem, and a third writer was brought in to finish. The whole thing is contrived, and to anybody who knew the actual situation, the movie has very little to do with how things really were.

Anybody who wants a realistic view of how things were should read the book "Little Girl Blue" by Randy Schmidt, which offers an objective view.

Nice review by Tom Barrister. Just finished reading Little Girl Blue, very interesting biography. This movie leaves out a lot of details, and glosses over a few major moments in Karen's life. Specifically, the extent to which she went to hide her anorexia (as someone said she was the most honest person except she would lie like a trooper about her anorexia), her solo album which was criticized by Richard among others and scrapped, and finally her disastrous marriage to a gold digging liar. As for lots being filmed then scrapped because of the family, Richard was an executive producer and guess he was trying to protect the family, especially his mother. I read somewhere the family was sorry they helped make the movie because they think it wasn't fair in parts. IMHO the movie does a good job overall portraying the success, talent (that voice!) and tragedy of KC. Like Tom Barrister said in his review, a voice like that comes along every few decades.

ps my favorite song is Superstar. THAT VOICE!

There have been a lot of opinions expressed as to the crux of Karen's problems. Certainly the eating disorder was a result and not a cause of the talented singer's anxiety.

The "controlling mother," need for romantic love, and career stresses all undoubtedly played a part. However, my feeling is that the act of moving Karen from her drums to the center stage mike was the real trigger.

The young musician felt comfortable and natural behind the drums. It was where she really belonged, despite professional dictates. A drummer's always a drummer at heart, sitting behind those traps and wielding those sticks. Her singing emanated from and was intertwined with the drumming, and not an isolated entity.

The move to center stage and abandoning her trap set was the beginning of Karen's downfall. The move robbed her of her base, grounding and natural habitat. It threw off her balance, and began her downward spiral to a rash of personal problems.

Seems like a small thing, yet my feeling is that had Karen remained behind those drums singing her songs, she might still be with us today.

The TV movie includes lots of great Carpenter hits, and includes the contribution of her protégé brother, Richard, who currently (in 2006) is alive and doing well in California.

I think this was an excellent movie which tells the life story of one of the Popular music greats of our time.

Love or loath their music [ i love it ] you can't ignore their impact on the genre. With songs that even now are a staple of most Weddings.

This movie starring, a very underrated in my opinion actress, Cynthia Gibb was excellent. The scene that stands out for me was the original try out in the studio where she tries to sing at the [ excuse the probably wrong phrase here, i am the only living Welshman with no musical talent what so ever ] key her brother starts on then he realises his mistake and changes to the key she should sing in. Makes my hair stand on end every time i see it.

If you've seen this movie you know what i mean if not GO SEE IT you won't be disappointed.

Sadly, I didn't appreciate the Carprenters until after Karen's death--young, stupid, inexperienced in romantic relationships, I guess, so lacking in taste! Also, hadn't had the classical vocal training I've since accrued, so couldn't have remarked earlier on what an exquisite voice we had the privilege to know. As a blind viewer, I can't, obviously, comment on the visuals, but Gibb was, in terms of speaking voice, remarkably similar to Karen (check out YouTube interviews)--this from someone who has "made a career" out of discerning between voices--Cynthia was only slightly higher, and had a very similar timbre. I would love to either read the screen play, or find an audio-described version that would catch me up on the visual aspects. I will say that a director/producer is only as good as the material provided--the family kept a lot of details hidden (typical of eating-disorder families not in recovery, especially then), and so, we don't have a chance for an accurate picture, and ironically, the fact that it skims over much or the inward aspects of anorexia is similar to how it is experienced until recovery: only the surface aspects are evident, until the person gets into therapy and uncovers what the illness is saying. And, back then, we knew so little about anorexia, so I don't find much fault in how it was presented here--we only had two hours (less, accounting for the time used up by commercials). If you go online, you can find some DVDs of the movie. I do hope that a more thorough and lengthier biopic will emerge after Richard has passed (preferably, before--if he can come to acknowledge that what their family has gone through is not shameful or terribly unique and deserves to be told truthfully, to assist others so they won't meet the same fate as his sister).