Farah R
Sweet Dreams is a heartfelt biopic that recounts the tragic, short life of country singer Patsy Cline through music, drama, and romance. The film is anchored in the magnetism of its talented leads, Lange and Harris, who commendably bring their characters to life and are the only reason the film is worth watching.
Rated 3/5 Stars •
Rated 3 out of 5 stars
04/12/24
Full Review
Jeff M
Musical biopics are obviously one of the most popular genres in current cinema, with the phenomenal almost $1 billion worldwide gross for BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY being the most vivid recent example. One of the very best is this biography of Patsy Cline, the greatest singer who ever lived in my humble opinion. I don't understand why nobody talks about this film anymore - I personally believe it to be better than COAL MINER'S DAUGHTER and WALK THE LINE (both very good films) and certainly better than BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY. Some of you youngsters out there who only know Lange from AMERICAN HORROR STORY may not realize that she was arguably the top actress of the 1980s after Meryl Streep. She is absolutely stunning as Cline, a role interestingly enough Streep has publicly admitted she wanted but didn't get. The chemistry between Lange and a never better Harris is really great, and Wedgeworth has a lovely role as Cline's mom that should have been a Supporting Actress contender. And of course there's the pure joy of listening to Cline's greatest hits, to which Lange expertly lip syncs. At its core, this is a love story that in many ways was as tragic as the plane crash that ended her life at only 30 years old. And although the ending of this film is a real heartbreaker, it's also filled with a lot of life and joy and humor. I urge you to check it out if you have the chance!
Rated 4.5/5 Stars •
Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars
02/11/24
Full Review
lawrenceb56
Jessica Lange is just as amazing here as she was in Tootsie, Country (which-unbelievably-is unavailable for streaming anywhere..) Frances and All That Jazz (another one you can't stream—damn!!). Ed Harris is his usual brilliant. Ann Wedgewerth (who is also wonderful in this) was like Lange in that she was smart and sexy and beautiful and still a hard working and well trained actress who could play a huge range of characters and truly create an inner life for each of them. This film seems very of the time and genuine. I think it's the equal of Coal Miners Daughter.
Rated 5/5 Stars •
Rated 5 out of 5 stars
01/30/24
Full Review
Jerod S
Lange and Harris have the kind of connection you'd expect between Patsy and Charlie. The biopic doesn't take too many liberties, but it's an odd ending with the crash. Good look into music from a different era.
Rated 3.5/5 Stars •
Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars
11/18/23
Full Review
Audience Member
HBO Films presents the true story of Nashville singer Patsy Cline the talented Jessica Lange plays the title country artist next to a very young Ed Harris as Charlie Dick He takes a keen interest in her but she's already married, it's not a perfect one though deciding she's had enough she leaves him and falls in love with Charlie hard eventually they get hitched yet she gives up her singing career to be a mother Her husband after getting drafted though has difficulty adjusting, he spends more time out getting drunk and fooling with other women For both of them it’s quite the transition this brought me back to 'Coal Miner's Daughter' in many respects, some familiar beats but the two leads shine Lange is spot-on as Patsy Cline and her singing isn’t half bad She had an illustrious career singing in the 1960s. Although she had trouble getting back on top becoming a mother and putting up with her husbands violent behavior. The songs are very memorable. The actors bring the two leads to life. Plus it’s another good portrayal of an artist struggling to make it work and not have the life of struggle they lived before. Sadly Patsy Cline died at such a young age. But she left a big stamp in the country music industry for many of us to appreciate. A very good HBO movie with heart, passion, and love for music.
Rated 4/5 Stars •
Rated 4 out of 5 stars
10/04/23
Full Review
Audience Member
(an "I love you and ALWAYS will!" film review by Timothy J. Verret)
Even though I'm a HUGE (and I'm talking HUGE!) Jessica Lange fan and even though I typically love those "rag-to-riches" films like SWEET DREAMS about country singer Patsy Cline, I was not prepared to write a film review because this film was a bit "TV-movieish" for such an intensely-feeling person as myself, BUT there was a line in this film that I can't shake, as it has stayed with me for several days now since seeing SWEET DREAMS. It is a line that Patsy's husband, Charlie, has her speak to him over and over (two times, actually). Patsy is actually a "patsy" often enough to her wild-and-crazy husband, Charlie, and when their marriage seems headed for divorce, Charlie wakes up Patsy in the middle of the night and takes her to the bar where they first met. They are dancing outside in the rain, and then Charlie asks Patsy to look him in the eyes and say with the utmost conviction, "You screw up a lot, Charlie, but I love you and I always will!" She struggles to say the line the first time but the second time makes it stick. I think the reason I can't shake this line is because this is the EXACT line God speaks to me every day of my life, i.e., "You screw up a lot, Timothy, but I love you and I always will!" So, given this line, I'll write a film review of SWEET DREAMS keeping this line in mind.
In SWEET DREAMS, Jessica Lange as Patsy Cline doesn't "screw up" one bit; she is completely marvelous and completely stunning. I loved Lange larger-than-life (I can see that on a bumper sticker or a T-shirt) as Patsy Cline, giving this driven-to-succeed singer an emotional landscape (a term synonymous with the acting of Jessica Lange) that, even though the film is "TV-movieish" as mentioned, no man-made TV screen (nor movie screen, for that matter) can hardly contain. The landscape of Lange (I can see that on a bumper sticker or T-shirt, too) is impeccable and not matched by many, many actresses coming or going and leaves us with "I love you and always will, Ms. Lange" every time Lange takes to the screen (and Lange is pretty much in every scene in this film, so that's a lot of "every times"). Ed Harris plays Charlie, and he's also great, as is Ann Hedgeworth as Patsy's mother. I'm reminded of another rags-to-riches film, COAL MINER'S DAUGHTER (1980), a much better film than SWEET DREAMS, with an equally as-impressive-as-Lange's performance from Sissy Spacek as Loretta Lynn. So, what makes COAL MINER'S DAUGHTER "filmish" and SWEET DREAMS "TV-movieish?" It certainly isn't the lead performances; let's get that straight right off the bat. While Spacek won the Oscar for Best Actress for COAL MINER'S DAUGHTER, Lange did not win the Oscar for SWEET DREAMS, and to not give Lange an Oscar for ANY performance she has given or will give is always a "we didn't love you this year, Ms. Lange," which is always a total letdown for me. I think the main difference in these two films comes down to their screenplays. COAL MINER'S DAUGHTER has a very rich screenplay with memorable lines and attention to time and space and place. SWEET DREAMS, outside of the line I mentioned above which was very personal for me, has a pretty "uneventful" screenplay and not much attention to time and space and place. It's the difference in these screenplays where in SWEET DREAMS, Patsy gets hit by her husband and he calls her "slut" and "whore," whereas in COAL MINER'S DAUGHTER, Lynn also gets hit by her husband and she says, "You promised Daddy you wouldn't hit me and look at you already." Can you hear and, more importantly, feel the difference?
I also want to make the above clear that it's not so much that Lange lip-syncs Patsy's tunes in SWEET DREAMS while Spacek in COAL MINER'S DAUGHTER sings Lynn's tunes with her own voice. That is very minor to me, because how could we possibly fault any actress if her singing voice lends or won't lend credibility to her real-life singer's songs? It's a moot (or "mute," whether to sing or not) point anyway, because watching Lange lip-sync Patsy's tunes is like watching Patsy sing Patsy's tunes, in part to a total marriage of song-to-mouth which Lange masters. And like Spacek, Lange in her performance goes beyond songs and mouth to give us body and heart and soul as she sings, something great singers (Barbra Streisand, comes to mind) know how "great" all of that truly is. Spacek did all of this with her own voice, hence one reason, maybe the only reason, she won the Oscar and Lange didn't (of note, Spacek won the Oscar over Mary Tyler Moore's brilliant performance in my favorite film of all time, ORDINARY PEOPLE of the same year; maybe Ms. Moore should have sung her part in ORDINARY PEOPLE, as it would have probably made her film family a whole lot happier!).😂
What SWEET DREAMS does have going for it is Jessica Lange, mostly, and Ed Harris and Ann Wedgeworth, in three terrific performances. It also has going for it Patsy Cline's songs which, as the film details, started off as "honky-tonk" songs until Patsy met with a manager who told her it was her love songs, her "softness," that was her meal ticket….and everyone ate it up! Songs like "Sweet Dreams" and "Crazy" and "I Fall To Pieces" are worth the money to buy the soundtrack alone for SWEET DREAMS. Patsy just melts our hearts and sings our sorrows in and out of love (albeit, "codependent" love) with her beautifully and deeply-nuanced voice and beautifully emotional and haunting attention to time and space and place. Unrequited love and "love on the rocks" is all about beautifully emotional and haunting attention to time and space and place, i.e., "time" as in late-night crying, "space" as in bed for weeks, and "place" as in a heart that "falls to pieces." This is all where SWEET DREAMS excels in the sweet language of love, i.e., "I love you and I ALWAYS will!." Lange gives Patsy Cline everything she's got to bring us all this sweet language of love.
"You screw up a lot, Patsy, but I love you and I always will!" Same goes for me, same goes for you, and same goes for Jessica Lange who "I love you and ALWAYS will!"
Rated 3.5/5 Stars •
Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars
01/12/23
Full Review
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