Sweet Dreams

I will say at the onset that I thought Beverly D"Angelo was a slightly better Patsy Cline ..at least, she looked more like Patsy, who was fairly Rubenesque in real life. Still, Jessica Lange captures the sassy, spunky, bawdy spirit of the great Cline. Ed Harris ( always superb) is wonderful, capturing Charlie Dicks tender side, as well as the time when he acted like, like , well, a dick.Anne Wedgeworth, a fine under-used actress was good as Patsy's mother. In short, one of the few good "Country" movies ever made.

Biopics are always a difficult nut to crack. It's never easy to condense the bigger-than-life story of a legendary celebrity into a two-hour movie and still provide the viewer a complete feeling of satisfaction. What it needs to do is not only highlight the well-known peaks and valleys of their career and personal life, but then, and most importantly, write choice, definitive scenes that will flesh out and humanize the character.

Chronicling the life of a famous country singer is especially tricky. So many things can go wrong. Severe miscasting, a hokey, superficial story line, an overly glossy, sanitary, and/or inaccurate treatment of the source. Many of these gals have had their hard-knock life stories laid out. Loretta Lynn, Patsy Cline, Dottie West, Tammy Wynette, Barbara Mandrell. The best of the film pickings is assuredly 1980's "Coal Miner's Daughter," Loretta Lynn's backwoods tale. And, fair or not, everything similarly produced since has been up for comparison. Thus, "Sweet Dreams," the retelling of country and pop superstar Patsy Cline (1932-1963), had a lot going against it by the time of its release, which was only five years after "Coal Miner's Daughter." Not only identical in heartache and rags-to-riches narrative, Patsy and Loretta Lynn were actually sisters at heart. They KNEW each other. And so, well, I'm surprised this biography came off as well as it did.

"Sweet Dreams" would be relatively fine on its own but it suffers in comparison to you-know-what. Shorter in scope, detail and focus, it is the star performances that rise above the conventional material here and earns what respect it gets. Patsy the Star is short-shrifted here, electing to concentrate more on Patsy the Woman and her stormy off-stage love life. Not necessarily a wrong decision, it's just that the execution lacks that creative spark. Despite the use of Cline's original soundtrack (superbly lip-synched here by Lange) to a number of her greatest hits ("Crazy," "Walkin' After Midnight" and the title tune), the movie rests on the fact that you already KNOW Patsy Cline became a BIG, BIG star. It doesn't capture the magic and electricity of Patsy that made her the star she was.

Jessica Lange is absolutely luminous as Patsy. She does her proud. Neglecting Kline's entire childhood, the film begins with her in the mid-50s, weighed down by a stalled career and a benign, boring husband. Lange captures the essence and spirit of the feisty, indomitable Cline. Like a restless stallion, she breaks free and shakes up her life, tangling with a reckless, kick-ass cowboy who she hopes will put the twang back in her life. With Charlie Dick (played with macho flair by Ed Harris), Patsy gets much more than she bargained for. With a last name like "Dick," you know this is going to be a fightin' man with a short-trigger. The virile, blue-eyed Harris is the perfect tough-and-tumble co-star. He's so damn good when he's bad, and sexy to boot. He does more than justice to the real Charlie, who had little of Harris' charisma. The two stars show real chemistry here and it ends up being the film's strongest suit.

In support, Ann Wedgeworth as Patsy's careworn mom (remember her from "Three's Company?") finally drops the tawdry, superficial "Mrs. Robinson" stereotype she's done way too much of, and offers us a deeply-felt portrayal of a quiet, strongly spiritual down-home woman who stands behind her girl through thick or thin. Basically a stage actress, this is Wedgeworth's finest film role to date. Meanwhile, John Goodman gives us another broad, healthy dose of comedy relief as Harris' brawling bar buddy, while P.J. Soles offers her cushiony 'other slutty girlfriend' routine.

But, alas, "Sweet Dreams" has been done before...and better Potential female country singing star marries lusty, hard-drinking ne'er-do-well. The wife becomes a big success. The dirty dog slides into his lyin', cheatin' ways. They fight. They make up. And over again. It offers no new or unique approach to the standard female slogan, "Can't live with him, can't live without him."

I have watched this movie at least 30 times. Patsy Cline is one of my absolute favorite country singers, as I grew up in the 50's and she was both a pop and country chart topper. I also grew up in northern Minnesota, so when a fellow Minnesotan played the role of Patsy, I had to see this movie. Jessica Lange was dynamic in portraying Patsy as someone who "just wanted to make things right". The other actors in the movie also deserved oscar nominations along with Jessica, as they completed this story. This movie is being shown a lot lately on HBO, TNT, CMT, and AMC. I highly recommend it.

If Loretta Lynn could have a movie made about her life story, and if Kenny Rogers could make several TV movies out of one cheesy album, then it only makes sense that a film about the life and times of country great Patsy Cline should be up there as well. Sweet Dreams is a fitting tribute to this timeless star.

Jessica Lange plays the sharp tongued crooner, in a bio pic that takes us from her upcoming days as a bored housewife, to one of Nashville's biggest sensations. As the film opens Patsy is bored and ready to leave a failed marriage. She meets up with lady-killer Charlie Dick (played by Ed Harris) and their torrid romance begins.

As their love affair takes off, so does Patsy's career. She is a hit on a national talent show, which gives her to platform from which to launch her music career. From there she stops everything to have children and take on life as an army wife.

Still unsatisfied, Patsy goes back to making music and meets up with a producer who feels her true talent lies in making ballads. They hook up and the rest is history.

Sweet Dreams is a slow-moving, but well made little film. Lange carries the story, sinking her acting chops into a loud, showy role, quite different from most of her other work. Ed Harris plays well too as the womanizing husband, jealous of his wife's success.

The film covers all of Patsy's highlights from 1956 right through to the devastating plane crash that took her life in 1962. One disappointment was the fact that the film put Patsy's career in the shadows, referring to it only between commentary about her romance with Charlie Dick. The film rarely takes the opportunity to explore the phenomenon that Patsy Cline became in such a short time.

Fans of Cline might be disappointed with Sweet Dreams, but Lange fans can be rest assured that this is one of her best performances. Brassy, bold and sexy, she is the one to watch!

Fantastic! Jessica Lange and Ed Harris tell the tale of Patsy Cline's tragedies and triumphs. Bonus surprise seeing John Goodman in a few of the scenes. I was spurred on to see the film after viewing a documentary of Patsy Cline's life and wow-wee I knew what was coming and it was still shocking in many of the film's moments. Sadness.