Searching for Debra Winger (DVD, 2004)

I purchased this movie because my husband travels on business and I save those times for the chickiest chick flicks that I can watch by myself. Seems I am in their target audience, I'm a working mother in the 35-45 demographic, a fan of Diane Lane and Teri Garr and many of the other ladies featured in this film. It seemed like it was presenting itself to be a movie where they discuss in depth the problems of maintaining a personal life, healthy relationship, motherhood, and the pressures of stardom and working.

It's something we all struggle with, and it seemed like it would be interesting to hear the perspective of people in a very odd industry that I'll never be a part of, so I expected some interesting conversation and insights. Prominently, at the beginning of the film and at a few places throughout, Rosanna Arquette would mention she was interested in why some women left the business and why some let their careers languish at a time in their fame when it would seem they would be at their peak.

Depth was definitely lacking. In fact, most of them talked almost in code ... there were a lot of knowing looks between them, a lot of phrases like "Well, I didn't want to, you know, go THAT way, you know, become THAT person..." and NO, I DON'T KNOW what you are talking about! They would often pause in speaking, roll their eyes or gesture, and Rosanna Arquette (who was doing the interviewing) would give a nod or an "uh huh" or "me too" of affirmation, and they would move on to the next sentence without explaining what they were talking about.

OK, I'll give them this, it was interesting in small bits and pieces to see so many of them so relaxed and just chatting. You do get the sense of who they really are and that they are not being interviewed by anyone with any sense of what an interview should be in the least, so you do get an idea of what it might be like to be eavesdropping near a conversation of some very pretty and nice actresses who have no interest in including you in the conversation but seem to be enjoying themselves.

If you are into that sort of thing.

I can save you some time.

Jane Fonda - very generic and forgettable.
Vanessa Redgrave - unbelievably elegant and sweet, and beautiful.
Selma Hayek - no idea what she is talking about and left no impression whatsoever.
Gwenyth Paltrow - ditto, and never formed a complete sentence.
Diane Lane - I don't remember a single thing she said. And I was very interested and really trying to pay attention.
Teri Garr - seems like a nice lady.
Rosanna Arquette - really really proud of herself.
JoBeth Williams - snooze.
Laura Dern - ditto.
Alfre Woodard - likeable, comes across as very smart and savvy, she was just given no material to work with.
Catherine O'Hara - seems like a naturally funny person, pleasant and smart.
Whoopi Goldberg - has the best line in the movie when talking about fame, Hollywood and stardom. Makes some reference to how most regular people look like her and not like the starlets. I don't remember anything else.
Sharon Stone - I have no idea what she is talking about.
Meg Ryan - seems pleasant and cute. No idea what she said.

Everyone else - nothing special. You do not come away with any understanding of what Rosanna Arquette had said was the premise and purpose of the movie. Although, I guess what I overlooked was that it is possible she just made this movie because it was interesting to her, and not for the "rest of us" at all.

Searching for Debra Winger is that rarest of rare things in the post Michael Moore world-- a true documentary that honestly explores an issue, talking to the principals involved, and letting them speak their mind without content altering edits or false juxtapositions.

Adult women are greatly diminished in Hollywood, and demands for beauty, youth, and being waif thin for the camera rule the day. It used to be worse, and this (pardon the cliché) groundbreaking set of interviews actually served as a rally point for women to begin to work together, to produce work that defied the "Hollywood Standard" of pretty young arm candy, to refuse to go quietly into the sunset of middle age.

Recommended for anyone with an interest in the "behind the scenes" world of motion picture and television, and for any woman looking at middle age and wondering what it means for her, Searching for Debra Winger opens the door to "looking inside one's self" for what is important, and for being yourself.

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