I'm sorry. I just found this TV movie to be gerally unsatisfactory and I place the blame on director Joseph Sargent and producers Hal Galli and Robert A.Papazian.
For starters, Karen changed her hair style several times during The Carpenters 14-year career, but they had Cynthia Gibb in the same horrific wig through three-quarters of the film in a style only faintly resembling that she adopted towards the end of her life. (Mitchell Anderson's wasn't a lot better!)
Karen Carpenter was very physically expressive while performing, even lip-synching, which most of their televised appearances were. Now granted, You Tube did not exist in 1988 when the film was made. But the tapes existed and it would have taken a little work to find and view them. So if Cynthia Gibb never saw Karen Carpenter perform she can hardly be blamed for LOOKING like she is lip-synching and just going through the motions because she was.
Richard Carpenter has stated that he was reluctantly involved with this project because he realized somebody was going to do it anyway so it was better to have some input. Still, he never fell down any stairs and Karen never collapsed backstage.
Overall I just found this to be a rather cheap and shoddy production and a disservice to Karen's story.
Karen Carpenter was very physically expressive while performing, even lip-synching, which most of their televised appearances were. Now granted, You Tube did not exist in 1988 when the film was made. But the tapes existed and it would have taken a little work to find and view them. So if Cynthia Gibb never saw Karen Carpenter perform she can hardly be blamed for LOOKING like she is lip-synching and just going through the motions because she was.
Richard Carpenter has stated that he was reluctantly involved with this project because he realized somebody was going to do it anyway so it was better to have some input. Still, he never fell down any stairs and Karen never collapsed backstage.
Overall I just found this to be a rather cheap and shoddy production and a disservice to Karen's story.