Karen Carpenter: Goodbye to Love

I really looked forward to seeing this documentary but was very disappointed in the all of the inaccuracies and the choice of using Carole Curb Nemoy of all people as a contributor. This was about sensational rather than giving additional insight into Karen's life.

I gave this movie 10 out of 10 because it dealt with issues that its predecessor The Karen Carpenter Story (1989) suppressed.

When Karen moved out from behind the drums, she became the real star of the Carpenters for everyone but her own family. For them, her talent was to be only for the use of Richard. He opposed the release of Karen's album not because of its possible failure but because he feared that it might be successful. Karen's talent would no longer be for him alone.

If Agnes Carpenter did not understand the centrality of Karen to her son's success, she got her nose ground into this reality for the rest of her life as Richard effectively went into a 25-year funk following Karen's death, doing minor composing/production/arranging work, releasing a couple of albums and singles which disappeared without a sight.

If you want to find out more about the tragedy of Karen's life, have a look at the following reading list.

Reading list: The Carpenters: The Untold Story: (Ray Coleman) Yesterday Once More: The Carpenters Reader: (Randy L. Schmidt) Lead Sister: Lucy O'brien Carpenters: Mike Cidoni Lennox and Chris May Little Girl Blue: Randy L. Schmidt and Dionne Warwick Why Karen Carpenter Matters: Karen Tongson Karen Carpenter's Second Life: (Rob Hoerburger, NY Times Article) The Beauty of Karen's Sorrow: (John Thornton) The Karen Carpenter Story (1989) Starving For Perfection: Randy L. Schmidt Close To You, Remembering the Carpenters: DVD - 1997 Karen Carpenter: Goodbye to Love (2016) The Karen Carpenter Story (1989)

I thought that Adele Keating was terrific in this movie. Hopefully, she will get more movie work in the future.