Dunaway creates the benchmark for harridans the world over but never entirely loses sympathy for her subject. It's a constant blast of high melodrama and camp.
Comment
10/30/07
Mommie Dearest (1981)
55
%
Tomatometer
How does the Tomatometer work 
Reviews Counted:29
Fresh:16
Rotten:13
Average Rating:5.6/10
Runtime: 2 hrs 9 mins
Genre: Dramas
Synopsis: Based on the book by her adopted daughter Christina, MOMMIE DEAREST is the now-legendary tale of Hollywood superstar Joan Crawford (Faye Dunaway) and the lengths that she went to in order to... [More]
Starring: Faye Dunaway, Diana Scarwid, Steve Forrest, Howard Da Silva
Director: Frank Perry
Reviews for Mommie Dearest
Top CriticReally no dafter, perhaps, than some of Joanie's own Warner Bros melodramas; the trouble is, it thinks it's Art.
06/24/06
Top CriticDirector Frank Perry simply sits back and lets Dunaway rip. He was either supremely untalented or he purposefully intended to sabotage her.
05/13/08
Wire Hangers!
02/28/08
It's rich, stimulating thought in spite of itself.
10/30/07
Director Frank Perry, who collaborated with three others (including producer Frank Yablans) on the script, gives it all a certain crazed conviction.
10/30/07
'No wire hangers -- ever!' That this apparently banal phrase has now achieved something like immortality is a reflection of the unbridled extravagance of Faye Dunaway's performance.
10/30/07
Top CriticDunaway does not chew scenery. Dunaway starts neatly at each corner of the set in every scene and swallows it whole, costars and all.
10/30/07
Top Critic...relies almost entirely on Dunaway's histrionics to propel the story forward - resulting in a movie that's good for a few unintentional laughs but little else.
07/15/06
A peculiar hybrid: a high-camp Hollywood bio flick about child abuse, elevated substantially above its sordid material by Faye Dunaway's obsessively committed interpretation of legndary star Joan Crawford.
06/20/06
Perry and Yablans fuse this formal schizophrenia with the cruelly episodic structure and fetishized period details of Hollywood biopics.
05/31/06
Deliciously entertaining trash.
09/28/05
High camp about child abuse... oy Faye!
09/09/05
I can't imagine who would want to subject themselves to this movie.
10/23/04
Top CriticBoth sadly terrifying (child abuse to the max) and a cult classic laughfest.
10/15/04
There is nothing to string the episodes together into a coherent drama, and no insight into Miss Crawford herself.
08/30/04
Top CriticNo review available.
07/02/04
Mommie Dearest features an intense and bold performance by Faye Dunaway as Joan Crawford.
01/31/04
No review available.
09/02/03
No review available.
08/22/03
What’s Hot On RT
Other News
Fresh Links
Featured
RT on YouTube 
Subscribe to RT's YouTube channel and don't miss a second of our cracking video content.
RT on Twitter
Follow Rotten Tomatoes and join us as we tweet about the week's releases.
IGN RSS Feeds