Love and Betrayal: The Mia Farrow Story

I saw this one a few weeks ago, late one night when there was nothing on telly and I couldn't sleep, so this was my last resort.

The supposedly "true" story of Mia Farrow, starting from her early life, then her career as a willowy ingenue in the movies (and real life), then her "affair" and ultimate "betrayal" by the cad Woody Allen, played amusingly here by actor Dennis Boutsikaris, who hems and haws quite effectively.

Former Oasis wife Patsy Kensit is properly wispy as Mia Farrow, and there are numerous very funny lines that will keep you watching, assuming that you have a tolerance for hokey stuff like this.

On the positive side, Grace Una is very cute as Soon-Yi Previn, and the obvious Canadian locations will make this a treat for Canucks.

Hollywood is all image. Happy celebrities selflessly attending charity parties all scrubbed and dressed and young and beautiful. But Hollywood is big money and sex and dreams and it attracts the damaged and the creepy. Hollywood is harsh place filled with whores, social climbers, suck ups and people who measure a person by the size of their wallet and their fame or infamy, it doesn't matter much which it is. When I say Hollywood I mean the entertainment business in general.

It would be hard to make a bad movie about damaged, confused screwed up people like Woody Allen and Mia Farrow. Woody's fans, of course, hate to see something approaching the truth about him, because his fans identify with him, so their comments are understandable. Personally, I think Woody is a reasonably good director but way, way overrated by most people. His fans, as I said, are generally those who identify with him.

The movie itself is a fairly well made made for TV movie. Actually there are a lot really good made for TV movies now days. Smaller budgets generally mean better movies. Worth a watch if the truth about the Hollywood Grotesque interests you.

Everytime Patsy Kensit appears on the screen, it makes me cringe. I think she overdone on trying to show Mia as a soft spoken and fragile woman. The Movie is overbias and does not show a balance view of the whole Woody-Mia-Soon Yi situation. It is obviously in favor of the Mia view of the whole matter. On the whole, this movie is a pain to watch, even though I sympathise with the real Mia for her plight. The editing of it is also very confusing.

It was a tremendous boon to TV and tabloids when celebrity Woody Allen was revealed to be having sex with his adult adopted daughter. Because it was a case of perversion and child-molestation, except that Allen apparently waited until the girl was over age 18 to make his move. And because the victim was legally an adult, media were under no obligation to protect the privacy of the victim. The whole sick spectacle could be exploited guilt-free.

There is a curious fascination to this film, it appears to be completely saturated with unintentional comedy. The guy who plays Woody Allen absolutely nailed the part, and he is made up so realistically, it creates the perfect illusion of what Woody Allen would say and do in his private life, if his lines were written by a 17 year old. The actress who played aging screen goddess Maureen O'Sullivan is also a singular performance of sophomoric material. All in all, this telefilm is an excellently staged and acted rendition of a surreal imagining of a disgusting, real-life tragedy.

Now of course, things are better: we have reality TV, so we can watch this kind of twisted garbage unfold in real time.

I think Patsy Kensit did a good job. To me it was a good movie. Some of it was a little too much to take. I mean Woody Allen having an affair with his adoptive daughter. Well anywayz it was a good movie, not great but good.