Isn't She Great (2000)

Company well worth spending a couple of hours with...
Loose biopic of the life of Jacqueline Susann, author of "Valley of the Dolls". Susann died of cancer in 1974, Good work by Bette Midler in the title role. Nathan Lane, of course, was great as Irving Mansfield, her agent and doting husband. And what an amazing collection of neckties! Nice supporting work by David Hyde Pierce, Stockard Channing and John Cleese. I'm giving this film 4 stars mostly for its design elements, and the fact it was partly shot in Montreal. :) It's a nice little movie.

It aint so great...but it aint so bad!
Look...every review I have read of this movie bags it. I bought it because I bought the Bacharach soundtrack and the music is fab. This film wasnt released in Australia and having read so many bad reviews I had to buy it and see for myself.
I liked it. Its not an epic, its a bit dizzy, a bit syrupy, a bit camp and there arent any special effects or car chases...but it was NICE. Just nice. Great actors, good sets and cinematography. The script is weak but makes its point and for those who know anything about or have an interest in Miss Sussann a worthwhile look.

Why Was The Cast Shuffled?
Many reviewers are confused as to why this film had a competent cast yet ended up as such a stinker, but the answer seems rather obvious:

The Casting Director of this bomb was an idiot.

I've seen this kind of thing happen before, where certain talent is chosen to play certain roles, but then later on in the development process the Casting Director has a "brain storm" about how to make it "better," as it were. Very rarely does this strategy ever work.

It seems that this was why you had Stockard Channing (a Jackie double, no less!) on board in the first place, because she seems to have been first cast as Jackie. Take some of the blame off the CD by guessing that Midler's agent later demanded that his client play Jackie instead of her friend? Possible.

But at any rate, the result was a dud, and the CD still should never have allowed it. (It could also be argued that Cleese and Pierce's parts may have been switched, but we need no further reason to call it a day on this one.)

That's because the real mixup is that Channing would have played a much better Jackie, that's all. Heck, even fellow cast member Amanda Peet would've played a better Jackie!

And as for Midler doing these lame bios, enough, already! She's already done a crappy Gypsy remake, playing Gypsy Rose Lee's mom, a crappy Janice Joplin ripoff (The Rose), a crappy Francis Langford USO gal thing (For The Boys). And now this piece of junk on Jackie.

Just remember this, Bette - and I DO love ya, gal - while you ARE and always will be the Divine Miss M., you are NOT and never will be the divine-anyone-else!