# Isn't She Great (2000)

### reviewed by
Mac VerStandig

    Isn't She Great
    1 Star (Out of 4)
    Reviewed by Mac VerStandig
    critic@moviereviews.org
    http://www.moviereviews.org
    January 31, 2000

---A copy of thsi review can be found at http://www.moviereviews.org/isn't_she_great.htm ---

Isn't She Great? No. Good? Nah. Mediocre? Not exactly. Borderline awful? Bingo.

Disclosure: I have neither read nor seen Valley of the Dolls, the book which made Jacqueline Susann famously trashy. Going into this movie, which is a many-liberties-taken adaptation of her biography, I had absolutely no intentions of checking out the sleazy novel or film anytime soon. The movie/book have now skyrocketed to the top of must-see/must-read list. That is the peculiar thing about Isn't She Great: the movie, atrocious as it is, makes you thrive its coveted subject material. Don't credit the film. Credit Susann.

Jacqueline Susann (Bette Midler) is a New York Jew with a dream of being famous. Irving Mansfield (Nathan Lane) is a New York Jew who's character isn't well-explained at all. For some reason, Irving craves Jacqueline (keep in mind that Midler is hardly a slender sex-star) and marries her under the condition that he make her famous. (Don't think Jacqueline is quick to marry though, she does seek G-d's approval when she drags Irving to Central Park and talks to a tree- something that doesn't look that odd for Central Park.)

Jacqueline, who admits "All I know about are aging astars, hopeful hookers and people popping pills and winding up in the gutter," is rather untalented in the performing arts. So, as history dictates, she earns her fame by writing about her aforementioned knowledge of a sleazy industry. En route to her pinnacle, there comes the humorless editor (David Hyde Pierce), who does the unthinkable when he orders mayonnaise in a deli, and assorted other characters that more closely resemble cliches and caricatures than real people.

How can a true story be accused of over-characterization and being too cliche filled? I quote the press notes when speaking of how the filmmakers "decided to loosen up the story a bit to make room for the film they all wanted to make." So just how loosened were things? Well, this story isn't supposed to be a comedy, but the writers made it one.

In becoming the comedy into which it has no right morphing, Isn't She Great finds its most serious problem. Jacqueline had cancer. Her son was mentally retarded. There is something decidedly pathetic and unfunny about a joke aimed at a dying woman's hospital suite- just one of the many cracks made in the 95 minute production. And the scenes that are genuinely funny, which, thanks primarily to Nathan Lane, there are a few of, are too embarrassing to enjoy in the middle of a poorly disguised drama.

Poor Nathan Lane. This is a great role for him and nobody will remember it in two weeks. He is absolutely fabulous as a constantly schmoozing New York Jew. And David Hyde Pierce is commendable as well, playing his typical straight man role. Even John Cleese is fun in a supporting role. As for Bette Midler, you would never be able to tell that she is the great performer she is by watching this movie.

The opening lyric of Isn't She Great is "I don't know where I am going." Neither does the film.

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