This is a heartbreaking documentary. It shows Valerie Perrine in her prime and her descent into a debilitating illness. She lives in a one bedroom apartment and needs assistance 7 days a week. She should have won the Acadamey Award for her performance in Lenny. I know that Ellen Burstyn was also good in Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore but Valerie's performance was heartbreaking. I doubt that another actress could have been better. I have wondered in the past few years what had happened to her. It is sad to see her health deteriorate but at the same time she still has optimism. I like when she said that she accomplished everything she wanted at the end of the documentary.
2 Reviews
The Story So Far
boblipton11 June 2023
This admiring documentary about Valerie Perrine has the story arc of a classic tragedy, with its heroine arising from the back row of a Las Vegas pony show, to an Oscar nomination to being sidelined by an array of health problems that have left her bedridden and requiring seven-days-a-week care. Her friends gather on screen to say lovely things about her, and some of them are quite prominent in show business, and it ends with a series of them wishing her well.
Yet behind that framework of tragedy, what do we learn? The events of her life seem random, from being an army brat to movie stardom, and then back into the shadows, only to be trotted out for a half hour. She calls it karma. Perhaps the point is to enjoy what you have while you have it.
Yet behind that framework of tragedy, what do we learn? The events of her life seem random, from being an army brat to movie stardom, and then back into the shadows, only to be trotted out for a half hour. She calls it karma. Perhaps the point is to enjoy what you have while you have it.
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